Slaughterhouse III: Doomsday
by enderdez45
Summary: [ON HIATUS INDEFINITELY] The third main story, and the finale of, the Slaughterhouse series. Total war is on the verge of breaking out. The League of Villains, aided by the brainwashed Chiraka, threaten the entire world. It's up to the heroes to save Japan from the world's most powerful villains! [Rated M for language, graphic violence, and suggestive themes]
1. Prologue: Tartarus

**If you haven't read Slaughterhouse: New Mission, read that first. This is the sequel to that, and the third main installment of the Slaughterhouse series. Enjoy!**

**Slaughterhouse: Doomsday**

_Enderdez45_

Prologue: Tartarus

The lone guard walked up and down the hallway, boots echoing against the metal floor. Every time he passed that cell, he instinctively flipped the safety off on his rifle. The prisoner inside could hear the click, and each time his smile grew sicker and more twisted.

"Feeling nervous, little boy?"

The guard stopped, a trickle of sweat running down his neck as he calmly breathed out, turning to face the prisoner. "Can it, dipshit. We have orders to kill if we feel threatened by you. I won't hesitate to unload a mag in your skull." He turned and left, his eyes lingering on the messily scrawled name on the prisoner's information sheet: _CATACLYSM_. "How does it feel?" he called over his shoulder. "To get defeated by a kid, I mean." He grinned upon hearing the string of curses and banging from within the steel walls. Chuckling, he continued his rounds. Gradually, the curses ceased, and the prisoner across the hall glanced up from a book he was reading.

"If it makes you feel any better, Cataclysm, I killed that boy."

"Zip it Jaquez, I wanted to be the one to kill him. After what that Hatsume kid did to me, what that fucking bitch Tsubasa did to me! Look at this!" Carbonado pulled his shirt off, revealing three jagged scars crossing from his right shoulder to his left kidney. "That fucking bird whore gutted me like I was a fucking fish!"

Carbonado scoffed. "Language, please. Also, that Hatsume guy died a rather noble death, I should say. About as noble as one can get trying to redeem all the horrors they've contributed to."

"Shut the fuck up. You don't know what that kid was capable of. He stopped a meteor the size of the moon from killing everyone on earth. How the hell did some weak bitch like you kill him? All you can do is move carbon around! Wow, such a powerful Quirk you got there Jaquez!"

Carbonado sighed, snapping the book closed and rising from his bed. "You correctly stated that I can manipulate the sixth element. However, I can do much more than that. Say, for example, I gathered a large mass of pure carbon, and removed a neutron from it? Carbon-15 is highly radioactive, and when you compress it, it begins to decay, creating tremendous amounts of heat. With your 'Cataclysm' Quirk, I assume you know what the substance known as 'corium' is?"

"I control natural disasters. That includes radiation bursts. Of course I know what it is. It's a blob of molten radioactive material."

"Correct. Carbon-15 corium burns at around 5,000 degrees Celsius. When he punched that ball of corium back at me, the heat disintegrated his arm and almost half of his body. Also, I would not recommend you make many enemies here. You wouldn't want to end up like Overhaul over there, would you?"

Cataclysm huffed, and Carbonado sat back down, evidently satisfied with his explanation. He threw a sidelong glance down the hall; _he_ was at it again. In the nine years Cataclysm had spent in Tartarus, no other inmate had irked him as much as Kai Chisaki. His germophobic habits had gone out of control, and ever since the League of Villains had destroyed his arms, he had become more and more unstable, lashing out at anyone that approached him, yelling all through the nights at imaginary heroes that Cataclysm had never heard of, like "Deku" and "Lemillion". Any attempt to restrain him was met with a string of curses and yelling; his veins bulged, and his eyes ran bloodshot. Currently, he was yelling at the guard from before, who evidently had hung up photos of the two heroes that had defeated him.

"Hey, Chisaki. Guess what?" Cataclysm, blind as he was, could practically see the guard's evil grin from his cell. "Did you hear the good news?"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT NAME!"

"You remember that hero that whooped your ass? Lemillion? He got his Quirk back a few weeks ago." The guard laughed as Cataclysm winced at the sound of a body slamming itself against a steel door, an all-too-common sound heard from Chisaki. "I hear that little girl you were torturing used her Quirk to fix him. My cousin works at the hospital where they were held after they beat you into a bloody rag, he said she's adorable. Wanna see a picture of her?"

"I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL GET OUT OF HERE, AND I'LL KILL YOU!"

"You and what _arm_-y? HA HA HA!"

Across the hall, Carbonado rolled his eyes, calmly standing and tapping on the door. A few seconds passed, and the guard's brown eyes appeared in the small window.

"The fuck you want, Jaquez?"

"I would just like to ask if it were possible to put a muzzle on that man, it's rather hard to read with that maniac making such a racket."

"Pipe the fuck down. You're lucky we even let you have a book in the first place." A pause. "…What are you even reading?"

"Oh, this old thing?" Carbonado held up a small, grey book. "_Meta Liberation War_? It's just an old book by an old criminal. It's a rather interesting read. He claims that free use of Quirks is a basic human right, and for people to restrict usage is denying us that right. You'd learn a lot from it."

"…Just shut the hell up and sit back down, Jaquez. Don't make me come in there." His footsteps receded down the hallway, and the door slammed shut.

Cataclysm lay down in his bunk, blind eyes staring at the ceiling. "Why am I here in this boring hall? How come I'm not in the same hall as Stain? I'm just as bad as that guy was!"

"You're jealous that the government feels you aren't as dangerous as the man labeled 'Hero Killer'?" Carbonado raised an eyebrow. "Pathetic, Cat, just pathetic."

"I don't care that you've been there for two months Jaquez, you know not to call me that."

"I'm just trying to be casual. I don't have a problem with you calling me by my last name. If you had actually given the police your real name, you wouldn't be stuck with such an embarrassing nickname."

"IT'S A COOL NAME! BUT CALLING ME 'CAT' REALLY PISSES ME OFF! IT'S LIKE YOU'RE MOCKING ME!"

"That's because I am."

The two villains felt the walls shake, a deep, rolling grumble echoing through the prison. Alarms blared, and they heard dozens of heavy footsteps rush past outside the hallway. Cataclysm pressed his face to the window, trying to sense what was out there, and even Chisaki stopped yelling. Carbonado looked over at his neighbor, an eyebrow raised.

"Did you do something? Did you cause an earthquake?"

"Of course not, dumbass. You know these shock collars we wear will go crazy if we even think about using our Quirks."

Suddenly, gunfire erupted from outside. Carbonado jumped as a stray bullet struck his window, leaving a scratch on the two-inch glass. The villains heard screams and yelling mixed in with the gunfire, and an explosion rocked the walls. A deep, primal roar filled the building, and sweat dripped down Carbonado's face.

"He's here, he's here, he's here," He began hyperventilating, backing into a corner of his cell away from the hallway.

"Who? Who's here?" Cataclysm yelled, backing away from the door.

"The Slaughterhouse."

A burst of heat rushed over the villains, and the door to the hallway burst in. Smoke filled the room, and Carbonado winced each time the heavy footsteps shook the ground. A silhouette of a man was in the smoke, eight feet tall, blue flames crossing its body. Two glowing red slits shone through the darkness, and a massive, white hand raised through the smoke. A purple beam shot out of it, blasting a hole through the lock on Carbonado's door. It turned and blew out the doors to Cataclysm and Chisaki's cells as a smaller figure stepped from behind it.

"Fear not, Emilio Jaquez, the villain known as Carbonado." Shigaraki's voice cut through the screams and crackling of the fire. "We have his mind captive; we are in control of this beast. We are not actually here, we are merely clones. I currently have more important business to attend to. Regardless, I have plans that require your assistance." He turned to Cataclysm, who had kicked down the door to his cell. "You too. We could use your abilities in the League."

"The hell are you talking about? Who the fuck are you?"

"…I'm going to let that slide this time. Come, join us in our quest against heroes. You two like killing heroes, don't you?" A sick grin crossed Cataclysm's face, and Carbonado stood up, glancing at Chiraka with a wary expression.

"You're absolutely certain that thing's under your control?" Shigaraki nodded, and Carbonado relaxed, albeit only a little.

"Oh, and I can't forget you," Shigaraki turned, sneering at Chisaki, who was gritting his teeth, eyes full of malice. "It seems that I am the one in control here, so I'll be nice and make you a deal." He raised his hand, and Chiraka placed his on Chisaki's chest. A white glow flowed from his arm, and Chisaki looked down in shock, his arms returned to him. "You will join me in this job, and in exchange, I'll get this guy to free your pals. Plus, I'll even throw in a little bonus." He held out a picture, and Chisaki's face darkened, lips twitching. "I'll let you take the big guy down to U.A, and you can take back Eri. Help me out, and I'll give you what you need to do whatever it is you plan to do with those drugs."

Overhaul shook with fury as he stared at the picture: Eri was sandwiched between Deku and Lemillion, all three sporting big smiles on their faces. "I will do what you want me to do," he growled, "but I get to be the one to kill Lemillion."

"Excellent." Shigaraki reached out, placing his hand on Overhaul's shock collar. It disintegrated, and he freed Cataclysm and Carbonado. "Follow Chiraka's clone. He will take you to free your comrades, and from there you shall travel to U.A, so that you may recapture the girl."

Overhaul placed his hand on the wall, and a massive gash split the building in half. "No need." From across the gash, the Eight Precepts looked out through the gash in their cells, gasping as they saw their leader standing strong. "Let's go, boys." He glanced down at a spare surgical mask lying on the ground, and he placed his hand over it. It swirled, disassembling and merging with bits of fabric strewn about his decimated cell.

Satisfied, he slipped the plague mask over his head, sighing as it clicked into place around his face, his eyes dark. "We've got a job to do."


	2. Chapter 1: Flashburn

Chapter 1: Flashburn

The jet soared across the landscape. An almost warlike atmosphere filled the heroes' hearts, bringing a gut-wrenching sensation of dread to mind. Along with the students from class 1-A and 1-B, Lemillion, Suneater, and Nejire-Chan, over twenty pro heroes, including their teachers, were on the plane to Deika City. Chiraka had finally been tracked down, and the heroes were rushing to free his mind from the control of the League of Villains and get him back.

"We'll be over the drop point in a few minutes," the loudspeaker announced. A light flashed red, and the heroes began their final preparations.

"Did he just say, 'the drop point'?" Mineta asked Sero, teeth chattering.

"We're going to drop in a few miles outside the city so that we don't alert the villains," Deku explained, fitting the various parts of the Full Arsenal to his body. He paused for a moment, then slipped the hood over his head and fastened his respirator. "Any hero who can fly will carry as many as they can, and the rest of us will float down with Uraraka's Quirk."

"Don't forget the most important part of this, Young Midoriya." All Might had insisted on coming to at least see the heroes off. "You will be joined by Team Flashburn, whom have already set up a base of operations for us."

"Team Flashburn?" Mina glanced over to the green-haired teen, smirking. "You're the only one of us who have any idea who they are, aren't you?"

"Team Flashburn is a group of five pro heroes who specialize in military operations!" Midoriya's enthusiasm for meeting new heroes never got old, at least in his friends' eyes. "We actually met some of them before! It was at the funeral…" He trailed off and glanced nervously at the dreadlocked girl fiddling with a laptop near the cockpit. Mei had come along to run the impromptu base, controlling drones and other important technological assets. "Most of them knew Toschi Hatsume from school… Anyway, they're not very well-known, partly due to their connections to the military. Have you ever seen that old American movie 'Black Hawk Down'?"

"I think so." Mina squinted, thinking as hard as she could with the only three brain cells she had. "That's the one where the helicopter crashes, and they have to try to save the crew?"

"Exactly. Team Flashburn acts like the Special Forces soldiers in that movie. They work with the militaries of several countries Japan has arms treaties with, like America, Great Britain, and Australia. They've been deployed on missions around the world. If they're going to be working with us, then the situation must be really serious."

"Ah thank you for reminding me." All Might stood up, grabbing a nearby microphone. "Heroes, I have an announcement to make. Please quiet down for a few minutes." The dozens of people in the plane gradually stopped talking, waiting for All Might to speak. "You will be assisted by a government hero force: Team Flashburn. They will try to infiltrate the League from within, so you all will be supporting them and keeping them off the front lines."

"Like hell I'm going to play second string to a bunch of kids!" The air around Endeavor grew uncomfortably hot. "Why do they get to have all the glory?"

"This is not a matter of glory. This is a matter of safety. Team Flashburn is primarily a military organization. They have no restraints against killing. They will not hold back if they are on the front lines. They are coordinated with each other, but not with any of you. If you try to jump in the middle of a fight to help them, you may inadvertently be killed." Whispers of fear grew within the crowd. "For your own safety, the government has requested that, once the battle starts, you have as little contact with them as possible. Does every-"

* * *

Midoriya woke up, air rushing past him. He looked around frantically, and saw the ground thousands of feet below him. Screams surrounded him on all sides, and he looked down at his feet as he fell headfirst. A large fireball engulfed the sky, smoke trailing from the wreckage of the plane as it careened down to the ground, exploding with a shockwave that shook the trees. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a smoke trail leading directly from Deika City; _and another one heading straight for the falling heroes_.

"Shit!" His mind raced, and he spotted the left wing of the plane falling near him. "Damn it, this is gonna hurt…" His fingers stretched out, and black energy began crackling between them.

A couple meters below him, Ryukyu was carrying dozens of heroes on her back as she glided downward. Tokoyami, Endeavor, Bakugo, Gran Torino, and other heroes who could fly were rounding up anyone still in freefall, and Momo was busy creating parachutes for any who couldn't fit on Ryukyu. Bakugo noticed the incoming missile and yelled a warning, thrusting his hand out. Before he could fire off a shot, a huge chunk of metal slammed down, crashing into the missile with a massive explosion. The end of the wing was wrapped in thick, sizzling tendrils of black energy, tracing back to Deku's arm. He grunted from the pain and, spying more movement, spun his body, whipping the wing around and slinging it towards the city, destroying another missile.

"They must be making Chiraka use Momo's Quirk! We need to get out of range!"

Sero shot a strand of tape at Midoriya, pulling him onto Ryukyu's back with the others, landing next to All Might. The ground rushed up at them, and Uraraka leapt, touching her fingertips to Ryukyu's face.

The dragon slowly came to a halt inches above the ground. Uraraka floated down next to them, slightly green. "Release!"

Endeavor landed near them, his flames torching the brush beneath him. "Those bastards! I'll kill them!"

"Hold on, Endeavor." Edgeshot narrowed his eyes, staring through the trees. "Something's coming. Hound Dog, can you tell what it is?"

"Two people…" he sniffed deeply, huffing. "…a beast…no, now three people…sulfur…"

"It's them!" Midoriya gasped. "Team Flashburn!"

* * *

Out of the trees, three figures emerged. One, a tall, muscular man wearing canvas pants and hiking boots, coarse black beard and hair cascading down to his shoulders. Another, an absolutely massive person rivalling Fat Gum in height, with white hair and orange skin, and hands like garbage can lids. And the third, a voluptuous, raven-haired woman in a red and white skinsuit, cape flowing behind her.

"We saw the explosion from camp," the black-haired man explained, "and we saw where you were going to land. Come, we should get moving." The stranded heroes waited for a moment, then began following the three. "Delta, go on ahead and inform the team that they are all safe." The woman grinned, and Midoriya heard a whining sound. She shot off into the sky, flames trailing from her feet as she arced over the trees and blasted off, white smoke trailing after her.

"The others will be glad to know you all are okay," the orange man said, glancing over his shoulder. "It sucks that our first meeting wasn't as good as we planned."

"You're Drakan, right?" Midoriya had gotten to the front of the group, right behind the two heroes. "And Beorn?"

"Yep! Hey, you were there at the funeral, right?" Drakan rubbed his mouth. "What was the name again, Melissa mentioned it in passing… uh, Deku! That's it! Nice to see you again, Deku!"

"It is an honor to meet a hero who was so highly regarded by our late classmate," Beorn said, nodding his head at the young hero. "The team visited his workshop sometimes, and he spoke fondly of you."

"R-really? I mean, it's not like I'm a true hero or anything-"

"We heard you defeated the Gentle Criminal with naught but your own strength." Beorn winked at the flustered teen. "Despite his crimes being rather dull, his powers were not to be taken lightly. Not many heroes your age could have defeated a villain alone."

"Anyway," Drakan interrupted, nudging his teammate with his massive elbow, "we're here! Welcome to home away from home!"

As the heroes entered the camp, they looked around in awe. Dozens of tents had been set up in neat rows, and a canvas shelter had been erected in a small clearing. A fire burned underneath it, and Midoriya saw several maps spread out across a table. Boxes of provisions lined the edge of the woods, and they saw the woman from earlier talking to a man in a dark bronze suit of armor.

"Anyway," Drakan said loudly, "this is where we'll all be staying for the next few days or so. Team Flashburn's been here for about a week already, doing recon and stuff. Our boss'll come over to introduce himself, then we'll let you all get settled in. Ah, speak of the Devil!" The bronze-armored man was approaching them, a concerned frown on his lips. His mouth was all they could see of his face; the rest was covered by a tall, conical, bronze helmet, and a blue lens covered the upper half of his face. The armor he wore had gold-colored accents on the edges, and dark, translucent red lines ran down his arms and legs, leading into golden rings on his elbows, knees, shoulders, and chest.

"When we saw the plane get shot down, we feared the worst." They felt a gaze wash over them, and he let out a faint sigh. "Thankfully, it seems none of you were injured. Once our scout returns, Team Flashburn will go over the battle plan with you all."

Uraraka leaned over to Midoriya. "Hey Deku, who's that?"

The hero apparently heard her. "Oh, I apologize. My name is Cyclomachina; I'm the leader of Team Flashburn." He gestured to the woman next to him. "This is Delta Vee. She's our artillery agent."

"Hi!" Delta waved, a smile on her face. It was quickly washed away when she noticed a set of lustful eyes directed at her, about three feet above the ground. "What?"

"Damn, you're even thicker than Mt. La-" Mineta was cut off by a whip from Tsuyu's tongue, and as he stood back up, rubbing his cheek, he felt himself lift into the air. He gulped at Delta's glare, withering under her intense gaze.

"What's your name, you little creep?"

"G-Grape Juice."

"…Really?" A nod. "That's kinda sad, actually." The students chuckled amongst themselves at her bluntness.

"Hey, what the hell's that suppose-"

"Tell me, Grape Juice, have you ever heard of a thermobaric weapon?" He shook his head, trembling slightly. "I learned this from an old friend of mine. His name was Toschi Hatsume." Mei's eyes widened at the mention of her cousin. "A thermobaric weapon works by dispersing a fine mist of fuel over an area. When that fuel ignites, the spark rapidly spreads throughout the cloud, creating an incredibly hot, incredibly powerful shockwave that can vaporize a car in less than an instant."

The heroes winced as she shook Mineta. "My Quirk lets me generate rocket fuel inside my body, and expel it from nozzles on my feet and elbows. Normally, I can ignite it and use it to fly, but my dear friend Toschi taught me that if I spray a mist of my EXTREMELY CORROSIVE fuel in the air, it functions the exact same way. Would you care for a demonstration?"

"N-no…"

Delta sighed, dropping him. "Well, you may see one anyway, if things go as bad as I fear."

"You already met me and Beorn," Drakan interrupted, "but in case you forgot, I'm Drakan! Beorn and I were classmates with Toschi when he was in school. My Quirk causes the inside of my body to be an incredibly hot, extremely high-pressure environment. Depending on the kind of rocks and minerals I ingest, I can form it into lava that I spit at opponents. Also, I'm one of the strongest heroes in the world! I could lift up a building if I tried!"

"My Quirk," Beorn began, "allows me to transform into animals. I can communicate with any animal I transform into, and my abilities are not limited to animals that currently walk this earth. I can become a dragon, a Leviathan, a dinosaur, or any other extinct or mythical creature."

"If we're on the topic of Quirks, mine is probably the one you need to watch out for the most." All eyes turned to Cyclomachina. He removed his helmet, and shocked murmuring spread through the heroes as they saw his full face; he had one giant blue eye spanning the upper half of his face. "I serve as Team Flashburn's sniper. I can fire an incredibly powerful laser beam from my eye, and my range is limited to anything I can see. I can punch clear through a tank from over twelve miles away. I warn you now, I will inform you of my selected targets before I fire at them. Because I will be firing from a fixed location, once I lock onto a target, you must get out of the way. My Cyclo-laser can, and will, instantly kill anyone who gets struck in a vital organ. And I always aim for the head." A silence fell over the heroes. Each of them had different thoughts, but they all focused around one main message: _Shit just got real_.

* * *

A few hours later, after everyone had a chance to clean up from the crash, Team Flashburn's scout returned from a two-day reconnaissance mission in Deika City, twenty miles away. She was introduced as The Peregrine Hero: Moki-Chan, one of the world's fastest and most deadly heroes. Another former classmate of Toschi's, her Quirk gave her the appearance and abilities of a peregrine falcon: she had wings with opposable feather-like appendages instead of arms, she had a beak, talons, feathers, and a tail. Her entrance was a bit nerve-wracking; she had evidently caught some sort of animal for a meal the previous night, and her claws and beak were splashed with dried blood. After cleaning up, however, she was found to be a rather fun person, instantly bonding with Nejire. Through subtle hints (Moki tended to say more than she should when she was around people she liked), the students determined that she and Drakan were married, to which Mt. Lady threw a fit when she found out her former classmate had a better life than her.

"Everyone." Cyclomachina's voice echoed through the camp, bringing all talking to a halt. "Thanks to the information gathered by Agent Moki-Chan, we have a concrete plan for tomorrow. Please gather under the central awning for instructions." About a minute of shoving and struggling to squeeze almost seventy people under a small tarp ensued. "Can everyone hear me? Good."

"Team Flashburn will depart tonight and infiltrate the city. Any resistance we encounter will be eliminated. I will be positioned on a grassy hill just outside the city, giving me a vantage point of the entire battlefield. Tomorrow morning, at exactly 06:23, I will fire upon the guards at the entrance to the city. At that moment, you will enter the city. You will be split into two teams: the primary team will consist of close-range fighters, who will engage in head-on combat, and the support team will be the mid-and long-range fighters, who will provide covering fire. Go straight down the main road. Cementoss, you will be key to this operation: we need you to send up walls on each side of the street. You cannot let the people in that city interfere with you. And on that note, Agent Moki-Chan has information on that."

The short hero hopped on top of the table so that she could be seen. "Over the past several days, I have been spying in the city. No doubt many of you have heard the reports of a team of villains attacking Deika City. The citizens fought back with their Quirks, and managed to defeat them. However, that has been discovered to be a lie. The truth behind the Deika City battle goes back almost fifty years, to this:" She held up a small, gray book. "This is _Meta Liberation War_. It was written by the infamous criminal and terrorist Destro, who preached free use of Quirks. Destro was imprisoned years ago, but we have discovered an important detail: Destro had a son."

The older heroes, some of whom had actually fought Destro, murmured amongst themselves in shock, but most of them didn't know who they were. "In Deika City is the headquarters of the Detnerat Company, the largest supplier of Quirk-inclusive items. Over the past week, I have confirmed that the CEO of Detnerat, Rikiya Yotsubashi, is the son of Destro: Re-Destro. He has been building his 'Meta Liberation Army' for years; right now, there are over 80,000 members. Last week, however, there were 128,000." Shocked gasps flowed through the crowd of heroes. "The League of Villains, particularly through the villains Twice, Dabi, and Tomura Shigaraki, killed over 40,000 people. Shigaraki himself underwent a major trauma, and awakened a hidden power: his Quirk, 'Decay', can now disintegrate things he hasn't directly touched. He turned three square miles of city into dust in mere moments." The tent was silent with horror.

"Additionally," Moki-Chan continued, "The villain Twice contributed to up to 10,000 deaths himself. His Quirk 'Twice' allows him to create up to two clones of anything; including himself. With each of his clone producing two more, he exponentially multiplied, essentially overrunning the entire city in mere minutes. As for Re-Destro, his Quirk grants him the ability to turn stress into power; at full strength, he could have easily beaten all of us in a heartbeat. He is a ruthless killer with no tolerance for insubordination; however, he was defeated by Tomura Shigaraki. He lost both his legs, and his title as Grand Master of the Meta Liberation Army. Tomura Shigaraki took over the Army and renamed it the 'Paranormal Liberation Front'. He has over 80,000 highly skilled soldiers at his disposal in that city. To be completely honest, this is a suicide mission if we try to engage in combat with them."

"That's why," Delta interrupted, "we're going to sneak in and try to assassinate the leaders of the army. However, that will be a difficult task; not only are we going to be fighting the former League of Villains, but also one of the strongest villains on the face of the earth: All For One's bodyguard, Gigantomachia."

"What about…" Tsuyu was cut off by Moki-Chan.

"The Slaughterhouse will not be a threat to us." Tsuyu visibly relaxed upon hearing that. "The League was controlling his mind with a drug that allowed him to utilize his many Quirks; however, they seem to have run out of the drug. Otowaru Chiraka is being held captive by the League, and is currently Quirkless. Retrieving him is our secondary objective in this mission. Our primary goal: to kill the League of Villains."

"On that note," Cyclomachina stepped forward. "Many of you are aware of what we do. We are a military-run organization; as such, we have orders to kill if necessary. That order does not apply to the rest of you. You are still heroes, and heroes are not killers. Soldiers are killers. You preserve the peace; we protect it. Any hero who does not have government authorization who fights with the intent to kill will immediately be considered 'rogue', and shall be dealt with accordingly. Do not deviate from the plan. Do not disobey your orders. As of this moment, we are going to war."

* * *

**Author's note:**

**And with that, it's time to infiltrate the League. How will this fight turn out? Will the heroes make a quick ending of this story? And where on earth have I seen those four familiar names before? Oh, right! The prequel! If you haven't read Slaughterhouse: Kinetica Rising yet, and you want to learn more about these characters and their personalities, Quirks, and experiences with the late Toschi Hatsume, go check it out! With that being said, enjoy the story!**


	3. Chapter 2: Impossible

Chapter 2: Impossible

_It was impossible. That never should have happened. _Tomura Shigaraki stared in shock at the empty battlefield in front of him. _He was Quirkless!_ And yet, the heroes were gone. Before him, Chiraka stood, panting, arm decayed. He held up his other arm, and a purple gate materialized. The Shie Hassaikai, Moonfish, Muscular, Cataclysm, and Carbonado flew out of it, crashing into the ground in front of Shigaraki. Overhaul craned his neck around, fury in his eyes as he fixed his murderous gaze on Chiraka.

"YOU!" Overhaul's eyes blazed, a vein throbbing in his forehead. "YOU TOOK HER FROM ME! I'LL KILL YOU!"

* * *

An hour earlier, the heroes gathered in the trees, just outside of the entrance to Deika City. The close combat team consisted of; from class 1-A: Deku, Bakugo, Uraraka, Iida, Mina, Jiro, Sero, Mineta, Sato, Tsuyu, Hagakure, Ojiro, Kaminari, Kirishima, and Shoji; from class 1-B: Awase, Kendo, Tetsutetsu, Shiozaki, Kuroiro, Setsuna, Monoma, Rin, Honenuki, Pony, Bondo, Ninrengeki, Togaru, Yanagi, Yui, Tsuburaba, and Kaibara; Shinso; Mirio, Nejire, and Tamaki; and from the pro heroes: Gran Torino, Midnight, Cementoss, Hound Dog, Ectoplasm, Eraserhead, Vlad King, Gang Orca, Tiger, Gunhead, Mt. Lady, Kamui Woods, Edgeshot, Mirko, Ryukyu, Fat Gum, and Rock Lock. Everyone else was more proficient in long-range attacks or support, so they would stay towards the back. Endeavor had some choice words about his assignment, but finally relented when Shoto told him it would do him good.

Bakugo was staring intently at the guards outside of the city. "Hey, isn't that the guy who showed up after Halfie and I beat up those villains?"

"Slide N' Go?" Todoroki squinted, the familiar blue costume contrasting the white wall surrounding the city. "Why is he guarding the city? Does that mean-"

06:23. A blue beam of light shot from the hill. It shot through the heads of Slide N' Go and the other guard, and they dropped, blood pouring from the smoking chasms in their skulls.

"Go!" At Endeavor's shout, the stunned heroes charged, sparing a horrified glance at the two dead guards. Cementoss placed his hands on the ground, eyes scrunched in concentration. The ground trembled, then two massive grey walls shot up on either side of the street, a path opening to the center. Hundreds of shocked citizens were in the path, but as they saw the approaching heroes, their faces hardened and they launched themselves at the heroes, yelling.

"Time to kick some ass!" Bakugo blasted forwards, pulling the primer on his left gauntlet. "I've been charging these things since last night." He yanked the pin out, and a massive blast of flame shot out, cracking the pavement below as it rushed through the corridor. As the explosion died down, the heroes saw dozens of enemies down, unconscious, but hundreds more charging straight at them. "Oi! Shitty Deku!"

Midoriya shot forward, activating the Full Arsenal. _Let's see how this works!_ "Delaware Smash Air Force: 800 Percent!" He flicked the four fingers on each hand, green energy flowing across his body as he pushed 100% of his power into them. For a moment, nothing happened, then a wall of air slammed into the citizens, compressed so much from the force that it acted as a solid mass. It rocketed down the narrow corridor at Mach speed, the backwash yanking the heroes deeper into the city.

When Midoriya stood up, fanning the dust out of his face, his stomach dropped as he saw what was once the center of the city. A barren wasteland of concrete and dust stretched before him, tents scattered all across. The Liberation Front was beginning to stir from the commotion, and his heart stopped as he heard a deep, collective yell resonate from within the hellish landscape. Thousands of citizens charged the heroes, roaring as the dust flew.

Bakugo gritted his teeth, priming his other gauntlet. The air around Endeavor flared, and his body smoked as he turned his flames all the way up. Snipe loaded his revolver as Momo created more bullets for him, and spun the drum, aiming out at the crowds. Suneater's arms became a mass of writhing tentacles and his skin hardened into a tough carapace, his eyes strangely calm. And as for Deku, green energy crackled and flared from his body, black tendrils slowly creeping out of his fingertips. He braced himself, and just as the frontrunners leaped-

A massive blue beam, nearly thirty feet wide, passed just inches from his shoulder. It cut through the enemies, slamming into the crowd and flattening them with a massive explosion. A brown blur filled his vision, and something warm splashed over him. Blinking, he slowly raised his hand to wipe the blood from his face. The enemy in front of him collapsed, head spinning on the ground several feet from its body. Moki-Chan's eyes were narrowed, deep black blades on her talons stained with blood. A metal shroud over her beak was soaked, dozens of tiny saw blades raking across it to cut through anyone it struck. "Cyclo!"

"A minute, please!" A massive, fifteen-foot bat landed next to Moki, and Drakan and Cyclomachina slid off its back, the latter's eye clenched shut. "Give me a minute to recharge!"

"We may not have that long." Beorn transformed back to a human, squinting at the enemies trying to regroup in the distance. He raised a hand to his ear. "Delta, light them up."

Midoriya's head whipped around as he heard a loud roar, a streak of flame and smoke shooting through the sky. Delta Vee flew over the Liberation Front, leaving trails of dark brown, almost red mist slowly settling down. The enemies screamed as the mist touched them, and Midoriya flinched. The rocket fuel Delta was spraying onto them was extremely corrosive, and their skin slipped off of their bones as they panicked, trying to wipe it off of themselves. The red-caped heroine landed, skidding to a halt by the heroes. "Everyone, cover your eyes and ears and keep your mouths open! Endeavor! Light it!"

A thin stream of fire shot across the wasteland. The instant it touched a single droplet of the cloud, the entire thing exploded. A brilliant white light struck the heroes' brains through their closed eyes, and a deafening thunderclap of a shockwave nearly knocked them off their feet. The air around them instantly heated up, and a rush of superheated air nearly scalded them, if it weren't for Todoroki quickly sending a wall of ice at the explosion, instantly shattering and turning into a cool mist. As the steam and dust slowly settled down, the heroes could see hundreds of bodies lying prone on the battlefield. Beyond, tens of thousands of soldiers of the Paranormal Liberation Front stood, fear and fury radiating from their ranks in nearly visible waves.

"What are we waiting for?" Midoriya had stepped to the front of the heroes, black energy crackling between his fingers as green flames leapt from his eyes. "We're heroes, are we not? We can't be beaten by a bunch of bad guys! Come on!" He shot off, followed by the dozens of heroes charging the crowd. Midoriya leapt into the air and, flipping in the air, brought his heel down directly into the center of a mass of angry citizens. "100 Percent Manchester Smash!"

* * *

For nearly two hours, the heroes fought. Battered and exhausted, they continued to push their way through the seemingly endless horde of enemies. As the pros and students fought, Team Flashburn was targeting those who appeared to be leading others and anyone that the heroes were having trouble with. Beorn and Moki-Chan were singlehandedly taking out hundreds of enemies per minute; Beorn, as a dragon, was crushing and roasting dozens, and Moki-Chan's deadly Hayabusa Blades wreaked havoc as she swooped low over the lines, cutting through anyone who made the mistake of getting too close to her. Delta Vee was in the middle of an intense battle; through the crowds, Midoriya could see spurts of flames from the thrusters on her elbows as she launched her fists at enemies, occasionally torching an especially vexing opponent. Drakan was in the middle of the fray as well; massive, trash can-sized fists swinging, spouting lava everywhere. The air around him was shimmery with heat waves, and occasionally he would spit out a lava bomb: a hollow boulder full of high-pressure lava, which he would proceed to launch at whatever unfortunate soul was attempting to get close. Cyclomachina was posted on top of a pile of rubble from the city's former central tower; he was more suited to sniping than close combat, and his Quirk had a seven second "targeting time" which limited his rate of fire.

Finally, the enemies stopped coming. There were still almost a hundred thousand, but they were stopped, forming a massive circle around the heroes. The heroes, drained, prepared for another wave, but none came. "Let me handle this." Drakan stepped forward and bellowed, deep voice booming across the landscape. "THIS IS TEAM FLASHBURN OF THE JAPANESE SPECIAL FORCES! ALL OF YOU STAND DOWN NOW! IF YOU DO NOT FOLLOW OUR COMMANDS, WE WILL BE FORCED TO ELIMINATE EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU!"

"Guess I'll die, then." The heroes' heads snapped to the side as an unmistakable voice called from the howl of the wind. Tomura Shigaraki was calmly walking towards them, black cloak flapping at his ankles. Behind him, the rest of the League followed, Twice dragging a skinny, brown-haired body. With the League, Re-Destro and two other businessmen, followed by Gigantomachia and a pale blue-haired girl, joined their leader. "Pity about the boy. You see, once we ran out of drugs, he was just in our way." Twice dropped the body; Chiraka's head bounced off the ground. Dried blood dripped from his nose and forehead, and his left arm was twisted the wrong way.

A flurry of movement from within the heroes. Shigaraki's hand was outstretched, a puff of dust all that remained of the bullet Snipe had fired. "I'm not falling for that again. I know everything you're planning to do. For example-" In a flash, he had his hand wrapped around Mirio's throat, pinky raised just centimeters from his skin. "You're probably going to try to use ranged attacks against me. Close combat would simply be impossible." His fingers twitched, and Mirio gave him a confused look. "And I'm not falling for your tricks either, Eraserhead." Faster than any of the heroes could react, he snatched Mirio's visor off his face and decayed it, throwing the dust directly into the messy-haired hero's eyes, making the teacher clamp them shut, frantically trying to rub the irritants out. "So, by trapping you all here with a hostage, none of you can get me with any ranged attacks without hitting your friends. And, by eliminating your ability to erase my Quirk, close combat isn't an option either. See how easy this is for me?"

"Clearly, easy enough that you felt no need to learn your opponents." Shigaraki turned at Mirio's words, only to find the blond hero gone.

"Huh? The fuck?"

He was answered with an uppercut from below as Lemillion shot out from the ground, sending him sprawling back to the rest of the League. "I've dealt with worse enemies than you, Shigaraki." Lemillion stood before the League, cape flapping as the rest of the heroes got into fighting stances. "After Chisaki, you're predictable."

"Chisaki? Oh, you must be that brat that took that little girl away from his operation." Shigaraki stood, grunting. "I wonder how it would feel to lose her? Maybe he's busy getting his revenge as we speak?" Mirio's eyes flared with fury, and he took a step forward.

"What the hell did you do?" he spat out, voice filled with malice. On the villains' side, Toga took a step back, nervously spinning her knife in her hand.

"Tomura, this guy was really tough. Are you sure you want to taunt him?"

"Relax, Himiko. He can't do anything to us. If he tries anything, I'll just dust this piece of shit." He yanked Chiraka off the ground by his throat, fingers twitching dangerously. "You wouldn't want a powerless civilian to die by your actions, would you, hero?" He laughed at Lemillion's expression of helpless rage.

Unknown to Shigaraki, Chiraka had one eye open. His vision was foggy, and he felt a dull burn in his left arm. He could faintly hear muddled, fuzzy voices and saw blurry figures, and felt something tighten down on his throat.

"Now, what's all this about special forces?" Shigaraki tilted his head, eyeing Team Flashburn in interest. "We were expecting heroes to show up eventually, but not special forces."

"That's the point, retard." Drakan took a step forward, cheeks beginning to glow orange. "We're not here for the kid; that's their mission. We're here for you all."

"Well, in that case, I might as well have a bit of fun before you get me." Dropping Chiraka, his eyes flitted around the heroes until he singled one out. "Hey, you're that frog girl from USJ." Tsuyu took a step back, narrowing her eyes. "I'd like to get back to what I was about to do before Eraserhead over there saved your pitiful life." Shigaraki shot forward, hand outstretched. Tsuyu's face turned to shock, and Shigaraki grinned as his hand came closer-

"Um, Shigaraki?" The villain stopped, sighing.

"What is it, Twice? Can't you see I'm busy right now."

"The kid disappeared."

Shigaraki spun. Chiraka had vanished, a small pool of drying blood all that remained of him. "Where the hell did he go?!" A sharp spike shot up from the ground, sticking Shigaraki in the stomach. As he choked, hunching over, Chiraka shot out of the ground, right eye blazing red. His right fist swelled, and as Gigantomachia leapt to protect his master, shot forward, sending the colossal villain collapsing into the rest of the League.

"Go!" Chiraka held out his hand as the masses of enemies charged, roaring. A purple warp gate appeared behind the heroes. "Get out of here!"

As the heroes ran through the portal, Tsuyu shot her tongue out, trying to bring him with them. He knocked it away as Shigaraki landed where her tongue had been just moments before, narrowly avoiding his deadly grasp.

"Chiraka! How the hell are you using your Quirks?" Midoriya sent a blast of air at Shigaraki, knocking him and the other villains away from Chiraka. "I thought you couldn't use them after the fight with Carbonado!"

"I don't know!" He seemed slightly panicked, dodging a knife thrown at his ear. "I just wanted to save you guys! I don't know how!"

"Chiraka! Come on!" The frog girl shot her tongue back at Chiraka, but he had to duck under a punch thrown by Gigantomachia, and her tongue missed him. "You'll die!"

"Deku! Get her to safety!" He dove to the side, a stream of bright blue flames singing his broken left arm, and sent one back in return. "Go through the portal!"

Midoriya flexed his fingers, and shot a Blackwhip at Tsuyu. It wrapped around her waist and yanked her back, just as Shigaraki's hand closed around Chiraka's wrist.

"Chiraka!" Tsuyu struggled against Midoriya's grip, but it was half-hearted at best. He wrenched free of Shigaraki's grip, eyes glowing white. The decay slowly stopped its progression towards his shoulder, and began to reverse direction, his arm rewinding.

"I'm sorry about this!" He sent a burst of air at the few heroes still outside the portal, knocking them all into the abyss. Tsuyu reached her hand out in desperation, only to see the purple mist vanish. Midoriya cradled her as he slammed into a hard, cold stone floor, the Full Arsenal sending a shower of sparks over the other heroes sprawled on the ground.

* * *

_A few minutes earlier…_

"Rappa, break down the door." The Shie Hassaikai, joined by Chiraka's clone, Muscular, Moonfish, Carbonado, and Cataclysm, stood just outside the U.A. Barrier.

"Ya know, you could do it a lot quicker and quieter, Overhole." Nevertheless, he swung his fists, hammering away at the door until it finally broke down, an alarm going off somewhere. "Just remember this: I'm only here until I beat you. Don't expect any big favors out of me."

"That's fine. If you would like, after we get that little bitch back, I'll let you have a go at me, you battle-crazy loon."

"ALL RIGHT!"

"Hey, ya wanna fight someone, I'm ready to go anytime!" Muscular flexed his arm, muscle fibers swelling and bursting out. "I'll lay you on the fucking ground!"

"Calm down, you two. Let's finish the job first." The villains rushed into the school, following Chiraka. "Hey, big guy. Where're the dorms at?" Chiraka didn't respond, but pointed at the row of buildings in the distance. They made their way to the last one, bursting down the door. "ERI!" Chisaki's yell echoed through the hallways, and Chiraka marched down the right hallway, stopping at Eri's door. Chisaki placed his hand on the door, and it disappeared. Slowly stepping into the room, he heard frightened whimpering.

"Eri~… I'm ba~ack." A muffled scream from under the couch. Under his mask, a twisted grin crossed his face. He began pacing around the room, looking under things. "Now, where on earth could you be? Maybe… here?" he disintegrated the wall leading into the bathroom. "Or, perhaps… over here?" The door to her bedroom turned to sawdust. "Or maybe…" he slowly approached the couch, grin widening as he heard the panicked breathing quicken under it. He slowly placed his fingers on the top of the sofa, kneeling down. The sofa disappeared, and Eri screamed, running as tears flowed from her eyes.

"HELP!" She screamed, hoping for someone, anyone, to save her from this nightmare. A firm hand grabbed her wrist and yanked her back violently, her head slamming into a wall. As Chisaki picked her up, screaming and thrashing about, Chiraka's eyes faded from red to blue. Immediately, his fist shot forward, yanking Chisaki back and quickly opening a portal under Eri. The screaming girl fell into the purple abyss, and it closed just as quickly as it appeared.

Overhaul was in a state of shock and rage. "What. Did. You. Just. Do?" He stood, removing his other glove as his eye twitched. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO?!" As the rest of the villains burst into the room to see what the commotion was, Chiraka shot his hand out. A purple warp gate appeared under the villains, and they fell through. As he fell, Chisaki's finger touched the edge of Chiraka's toe, and as the portal closed, Overhaul saw Chiraka burst into a puddle of brown muck.

* * *

He flew out of the portal, crashing into the dusty ground in Deika City. His head slowly craned around, eyes settling on Chiraka. "YOU!" Overhaul's eyes blazed, a vein throbbing in his forehead. "YOU TOOK HER FROM ME! I'LL KILL YOU!"

"Wait a minute, Overhaul." Shigaraki held his hand out, motioning for the other villains to stay put. "Let's wait until we get more drugs for this guy. After we make him send us to wherever he sent them, then we can kill him."

Chiraka closed his eyes, panting, then opened them. They were icy blue, shining with conviction. "I'm not gonna let you get the chance." He raised his hand up, trembling slightly, then lowered it to his other wrist. Shigaraki's eyes widened.

"Stop him! Don't let him do it!" He leapt forward and swung his arm, trying to knock Chiraka's hand out of the way. It wrapped around his own arm, and his skin started to crumble.

"I'll see you in hell, Shigaraki." Chiraka's arm decayed to his shoulder, and the decay rapidly spread as Chiraka closed his eyes and fell forwards, hitting the ground in a puff of dust. All was silent for a moment, villains frozen in shock, then Shigaraki broke the silence.

"DAMN IT! GOD DAMN IT! GOD FUCKING DAMN IT!"

* * *

**Author's note:**

**Wait, what?! Did Chiraka just die! I thought that wasn't supposed to happen for another eight chapters or so! In any case, the heroes are safe. The question is, where on earth did he send them to? Maybe... a secret hideout? And is Eri safe? Where did he send her? Find out in the next chapter, coming soon! Stay tuned, and enjoy!**


	4. Chapter 3: In Hiding

Chapter 3: In Hiding

"Where the hell are we?"

Endeavor's voice echoed through the cave. Dull, glowing crystals in the ceiling gave off a cold, hazy ambience, stretching into the distance. Midoriya rolled over onto his side, groaning as something in his back screamed in protest. Hearing labored breathing and frantic shuffling, his eyes snapped open and, ignoring the heat radiating down his spine, forced himself upright. As his eyes slowly focused in the light, a red stain on the ground made ice run through his veins. Before him, Mirio was cradling a small, blue-haired bundle, faint sobs coming from within his cape.

"M-Mirio? Is that…"

"She fell through another gate just as we did. She doesn't seem hurt." Mirio's soft voice, laced with concern for the young girl, tugged at something in Midoriya's chest as he crawled over to Eri.

"Eri?" The bundle of cape slowly stopped sobbing, and Midoriya heard a soft sniffle as it shivered. "What happened to you?"

"…He was there…" Eri's voice cracked a little, and the two heroes' blood froze. "…he came to the school…he was hunting me, like it was a game…"

"Chisaki's been in Tartarus for months," Mirio whispered into Midoriya's ear. "How the hell did he show up at U.A? I thought the League took his arms."

"…He was there too…" The two froze as Eri's voice floated up. "The one who helped me fix Togata."

"…Chiraka was being controlled by the League…" Midoriya was on the verge of entering mutter mode. "They must have used him to break Overhaul and his crew out of there…"

While the two were busy sorting out Eri's story, the rest of the heroes were getting their bearings. After a quick head count, Aizawa sighed as all his students were accounted for. "At least everyone's here. Wherever here is, anyway…"

"We're underground." Delta had her eyes closed, rubbing her ear. "The air pressure's heavier than where we were at Deika. Wherever that kid sent us, it's deep."

"The cave goes on a bit further," Moki said as she fluttered over. "I just checked. There's some sort of spring at one end, and there's a piece of cloth covering the entrance to it. There's another one in front of a small pit. I think this is some kind of bunker."

Rock Lock leaned back against a wall, eyes closed, then jerked forwards with a surprised grunt, looking behind him in confusion. He slowly reached his hand forward, then glanced over his shoulder. "Hey Fat."

"Yo!"

"You feel this wall right here?"

Fat Gum placed his own hand against the wall, twitching it back slightly. "…No, I don't."

"Me neither."

"The hell's that supposed to mean?" The heroes jumped as an explosion sounded behind them. Seventy sets of eyes focused on the culprit, who was staring at the wall in front of him in confusion, smoke trailing from his palms. "It didn't do anything…" Bakugo looked down at his hand, then placed it back on the wall and fired again.

"Cut it out kid!" Mirko coughed. "Quit wasting our oxygen!"

"There wasn't a shockwave…"

"The hell are you going on about?"

"…Oi, shitty Deku! Get over here!" The aforementioned hero glanced up. "You hit harder than I can. Punch the wall."

Midoriya got up, giving Bakugo a confused look, before spinning around and slamming his foot against the wall. Those around him winced in anticipation, but no sound came forth. "Huh?" He kicked again, his kick still silent. "He's right. It's like the walls don't absorb any energy."

"They are impenetrable." Fat Gum jumped back as the previously unseen figure spoke. A faint blue haze surrounded him, but when he looked up, Mei's legs gave out from under her.

"Toschi?!" The heroes' heads whipped around in shock. The blue figure gave a sad smile.

"If you're hearing this message, then I am certainly dead, and Otowaru Chiraka is most likely dead as well. I'm speaking to you through an artificial intelligence program left over from my university days." The dumbfounded heroes circled the hologram, those who knew him in life frozen. "Chiraka asked me to help him construct this bunker quite some time after I first met him. The walls, as I presume you have discovered, were made by fusing a Quirk with the surrounding stone. Nothing can pass through the shield, and nothing can leave from within. This is for your safety."

"The hell are you talking about?! What do you mean for our safety?!" Endeavor raised a fist to the hologram, before realizing the absurdity of threatening a video and lowering it. "We're heroes! We can take care of ourselves!"

"Can you protect yourselves with the truth?" The cave went silent. "I am a computer program and I have access to the internet. The League of Villains is twisting the story on you. They left cameras everywhere, filming you heroes attacking the citizens of Deika City."

"They were villains!"

"The media does not know that. All they know is that a large group of heroes attacked a seemingly innocent population. In just a few hours, the occupation of hero has died."

Toschi's words echoed in their heads. _'The occupation of hero has died.'_ Midoriya felt ice rush up his spine. "W-what? That can't be…"

"As we speak, the government of Japan is already passing laws cancelling all hero licenses. This situation has led to an instant rise in criminal activity. Japan is mobilizing the military to protect order. Cities are quickly becoming warzones."

"Which is why we should be out there!" Gran Torino hopped over Endeavor's head, pointing his cane at Toschi's hologram. "We need to be protecting the citizens from villains!"

"You need to protect yourselves." A video screen popped up beside Toschi. On it, hordes of people marched through the streets, yelling and chanting. Fires burned around them, the flames licking at the windows of hero merchandise stores. The horrified heroes watched as the crowd threw a hero down, tearing his costume off and throwing it into the flames before tying him up and dragging him down the street. The video changed, showing similar events unfolding across the country. "This is what awaits you up above. Heroes are being hunted by the people you so desperately want to protect."

The cave was silent. Midoriya felt as though he needed to say something, anything, but the words failed him.

"Now, I suppose it's time for me to show you the fruits of Chiraka and mine's labor." The hologram abruptly turned and walked straight through the crowd, the heroes reluctantly following. "This area where Chiraka placed you is what he called the 'reception area'. It's where I set my hologram to start and where you all will be sleeping."

"Wait, sleeping?" Toschi didn't stop walking, but turned his head around to face Fat Gum.

"This is not a scenario where you rest for a few hours and then immediately run back out to the fight. In any case, you physically can't leave here." The hologram glanced towards the back of the group, eyeing a certain golden-haired hero. "No matter what Quirk you may have, passing these walls is impossible."

"He's right." Mirio held out his hand, slipping it through Midoriya's face and to the wall behind him, his fingers stopped at the barrier. "I don't know how you made this thing, but even I can't Permeate through it."

"This cave is in a very powerful part of the world. Quirks can be imbued into nonorganic objects here. The cave walls are a result of one of Chiraka's Quirks being manifested into what scientists call a 'Quirk Field'." He stopped walking, a short distance from two canvas flaps covering one part of the hallway. "The left one is the toilet. Chiraka acquired a Quirk that compresses things into microscopic beads. I used an invention I built to ensure that anything that falls into the pit passes through a Quirk Field that activates it. The right passage leads to another Quirk Field that will act as a bath. It is a large, open pool of water being constantly filtered and replenished through a natural spring. It contains minerals and chemicals that accelerate healing and stamina recovery. Additionally, there is a separate hot spring inside. I trust you all to divide bathing times accordingly."

He walked on, leading the heroes down a short side passage into a large room racked with shelves. "This is a storage room. Chiraka used one of his Quirks to provide you all with bedding, towels, and spare sets of clothes. Although, he might not have known that there would be almost seventy people here, so there might not be enough for everyone."

"I can make more if needed," Momo offered. Toschi's gaze hardened, the onyx-haired teen withering under his eyes.

"I would encourage those with Quirks relying on nutrition not to use them." Abruptly turning, he led the heroes to another rack of shelves. "This is all of the food you will have. It's all canned and dried. It's not much, but it will keep you alive. With this many people, it should last you eight months if you ration it."

The cave felt as though all of the air had been sucked out of it. "EIGHT MONTHS?" Bakugo stomped forward, ignoring the hands trying to pry him back. "I'M NOT SITTING AROUND HERE FOR EIGHT GODDAMN MONTHS! YOU LET US OUT OF HERE RIGHT THIS GODDAMN INSTANT!"

"Kacchan, calm d-"

"ZIP IT FUCKMUNCH!" Smoke began rising from his palms as those near him slowly backed away from the foul-mouthed ball of ill-constrained rage that was Katsuki Bakugo being told he had to sit in a cave with shitty Deku for eight months. "LISTEN HERE YOU SEE-THROUGH BASTARD! YOU CAN'T MAKE US STAY HERE FOR EIGHT MONTHS!"

"No, I can't. These walls will, however. And in any case, you won't be here for eight months."

"What? You said that-"

"I said the food would last eight months." Toschi's image fizzled a bit. "Power's running low for me. Guess this is my final goodbye."

"No, you stay right here Toschi!" The usually stoic and aloof Beorn had eyes brimming with barely-concealed desperation. "What do you mean by that?"

Toschi's image flickered out of sight, his words trailing off with him. "The walls will open after twelve months…"

* * *

_Three weeks later…_

"Come on Deku! You can beat him!"

"Kick his ass Bakugo!"

The students were gathered around the two in one corner of the cave, whooping and hollering. Midnight stood in the center of the circle, her red mask absent as she raised her flogger.

"On my mark, boys!" The two narrowed their eyes, hands twitching as they readied themselves.

"Go!" At her signal, their hands flew out, Midoriya thrusting a flat palm against Bakugo's clenched fist, the owner of which growled and stomped his foot, turning away.

"God dammit! Why the fuck do you always throw paper?!" The crowd was evenly split between cheers and groans as yen traded hands.

"If I always throw paper, then why did you throw rock?"

"Shut the fuck up, dickweed!"

"Midoriya wins yet again!" Midnight thrust the victorious teen's fist into the air. "For the fourteenth day in a row, Midoriya is undefeated! Who dares challenge the champion?"

After the rough first few days, during which many of the heroes attempted to take their frustrations out on the so-far impenetrable walls, some of them decided to take up fighting each other to pass the time. Aizawa had restricted them to rock-paper-scissors after a certain blond-haired individual accidentally ended up fumigating the entire cave for three days. Other than other minor issues, life in the cave had slowly settled down to routine. Fat Gum and Drakan, the two largest people in the group, had elected to lose some weight, against the others' protests, and had been fasting for the past three weeks, thus hoping to extend the food supply. As a result, Fat Gum was in his skinny form and, for the first time in his life, Drakan could proudly show the world his muscles, unchained from their adipose prison.

Though his parting words were unclear, Toschi's mention of the "walls opening" struck a chord inside Midoriya's head. _Does that mean a tunnel will appear leading us to the surface? Does that mean that weird barrier around the walls will disappear and we'll have to dig our way out? How is it set on a timed basis if it's one of Chiraka's Quirks? And why is it set to turn off in a year? Is that a coincidence, and it's been active since they built it? Did it only activate once we arrived here and triggered Toschi's program? Regardless, I've been beating on these walls for almost a month now, and nothing I do seems to be getting close to even touching it… And where in the world is this cave?_

* * *

"Kitobaki, your report better be good." Kneeling before Tomura Shigaraki, a pale, skinny, black-haired woman with red eyes lifted her head.

"Master, I have succeeded in narrowing down the location of the hideout the heroes have been warped to. I suspect it is somewhere in China, near the birthplace of Quirks."

"You had better be correct, for your sake." Shigaraki held up a rock, which he turned to dust. "Need I remind you what happened to the last spy I sent?"

"Master, my Omen has never been wrong. I have seen the construction of the cave the heroes are in, it is only a matter of time until I find exact coordinates."

"How long did you say we had to wait for them?" Toga swung her legs idly, sitting on Gigantomachia's head.

"Be quiet, you stupid, impatient brat!" Kitobaki snapped at the blonde, who instantly jumped off her perch and swung a knife at the spy's neck. A flash of brown cloth, and the woman shed her cloak, revealing a thin bodysuit covering her skeleton-thin body. Her eyes flashed bright red, and two more opened; one above her left eye, on her forehead, and another below it, on her left cheek. In an instant, two knives were in her hands, one sending Toga's dagger spiraling through the air and the other at the girl's throat. Gigantomachia rose, looking to Shigaraki for permission to enter the fight, but the grey-haired villain waved him away, smirking.

"Toga, have you forgotten just who Junko Kitobaki is?" He rose as Toga squinted, eyeing the purple-stained blade pressed to her throat. "A trained assassin twenty years your elder, able to predict anything that will happen within one year, who fights dirty."

"One drop of the poison on these blades," Kitobaki hissed, "and every muscle in your body instantly begins to dissolve. Your lungs will fail, your organs will fall apart, and you will die a horrifically painful death. Please, keep pissing me off."

* * *

**I swear, I'm still alive. School kept me busy for a while, and I managed to squeeze out this chapter. It's weak, I know. It's mostly just filler and a new character introduction. The next chapter will probably be out in the next month or so, so keep tuned!**


	5. Chapter 4: Escape

Chapter 4: Escape

Nine months. Nine months was all it took for the barrier to break. Nine straight months of trying, of pounding on the impregnable walls of the cave. At long last, just days before their food would have run out, with the combined efforts of all the heroes, the barrier was overwhelmed, and an iron-soled boot cracked a gash through the cave wall.

"We did it! We're free!" Deku's exclamation brought cheers from the exhausted group. Nine months is a long time to be trapped in a room the size of a large house, but when seventy other people are in the same enclosed area, isolated from the outside world with no form of entertainment or sunlight, tensions run high. The first month or so were relatively stable, but the next few were full of arguing and infighting, the claustrophobic feeling infecting the minds of everyone. The only few who were free from this toxic mindset were Eri and those who were looking after her: Midoriya, Togata, Nejire, and Amajiki. The viral joy of the young girl, which had quickly returned after encountering Chisaki once again, gave hope to those around her, and gave them a reason to work harder than ever to break free.

"If we had Kushiro with us," Drakan muttered to Beorn, "this would be a lot easier to escape."

"We offered her a position with us, but she was more interested in her family commitments. Honestly, I think she is much happier working with her partner than she would be with us, always on deployment away from home."

"We don't need a digger. Back up." Cyclomachina knelt down in front of the cracked wall and turned the focusing dial on his helmet, the lenses on his visor moving around. Moving his head with robotic precision, he scanned the wall, sensors in his helmet finding the distance to the surface. Flicking his armored finger against the wall a few times, his face turned up at an angle, the heroes next to him saw a blue glow begin to radiate from his eye, and backed away. There was a bright flash, and a beam of energy punched through the rock. All was silent for a moment, then a high-pitched explosion rang through the cave.

Sizzling, a hole sat in the center of the wall, angling up towards the surface. It was big enough for Drakan and Fat Gum to fit through, but only because they had lost so much weight. In the distance, a tiny pinprick of light shone against the darkness of the tunnel. "I need someone who can get up there really fast to go and find out where the hell we are." Cyclomachina looked over at the two females in his team, both beaming. "Moki, the tunnel is too narrow for you to fly."

"Should have made it bigger then," she pouted, visibly deflating.

"I know you're feeling antsy about not being able to fly these past months, but I needed to conserve my energy too. What if someone is up there spying on us and I won't be able to take them down?" He then turned to the taller woman, who pouted as she saw the look in his eye. "Delta, you'd kill all of us if you tried to launch from here."

"I can't help it, I've been feeling claustrophobic. I just wanna get out of here."

Cyclomachina sighed, looking around until he spotted who he was looking for. "Deku, you go."

"What? Me?"

"You're tough enough that if there's someone waiting for us up there, you can hold them off long enough for the rest of us to arrive, and you can probably get up there the fastest without killing us or yourself."

Seventy sets of expectant eyes fell upon him as he gulped away his nerves. "Right. I'll head up there real fast and let you know what it's like."

As he crawled into the hole, green energy beginning to crackle in his legs, Cyclomachina handed him a small earpiece. Setting it in, he stretched his quads one last time, then leapt. The light of the cave quickly disappeared behind him, leaving him in utter darkness as he moved, propelling himself on all fours. Despite his speed, the light at the end never seemed to get any closer. _Maybe he didn't aim right and I'm still seeing the beam travelling._ Nevertheless, after nearly five solid minutes, he began to feel a chill in his limbs. As the end of the tunnel grew nearer, he felt a cold wind begin to sting against his face, and he leapt out of the tunnel into a snowy cliffside. As the ground rushed away from under him, he panicked, flinging his Blackwhip out to the cliff edge, just barely reeling himself back in. Shivering as he brushed the snow out of his hair, he looked around, eyeing the titanic mountains surrounding the tunnel. A lone yak eyed him warily, chewing on something it found under the snow.

"Deku, are you up there yet?" The voice crackled in his ear, and he reached up to hold the microphone button.

"Yes! I'm up here!"

"What do you see?"

"It's really cold and snowy. There's mountains all around us, and I think this thing here is a yak."

"…The Himalayas, maybe? In any case, if it's not too cold, wait up there. We'll start making our way up to you, but it may take a few minutes. How long was the tunnel?"

"A few mile-" Sensing something in the wind, he dove back, away from the entrance to the tunnel. A dark shape rushed by his ear, knocking the earpiece out. Deku heard the yak moo in pain, and he watched, horrified, as the yak, a black dagger stuck in its shoulder, seemingly shrunk, its muscles and fat disappearing. With one last feeble groan, it collapsed, covering the tunnel entrance with its furry body.

"A pity," a rough voice echoed. Turning around, already preparing to fight, he spotted a figure in a brown cloak standing a little ways away from him. "I was hoping to hit you instead, but you're actually good. I should probably start fighting for real now."

"Who are you? What did you just do? How did you find this place?" Not expecting a response, he was surprised as the figure lowered their hood, revealing a skinny, black-haired woman with four glowing red eyes. One of the extras was on her forehead, above her left eye, and the other was just below her left eye, on her cheekbone. Cocking her head to the side, he felt her gaze wash over his body.

"My name is Junko Kitobaki. I'm an assassin sent by the Paranormal Liberation Front to kill everyone and bring you to Tomura Shigaraki."

"Shigaraki sent you? How does he expect one-" In the time it took him to blink, he was on his back, Kitobaki straddling his waist with a dagger pressed against his throat. He stared blankly at the sky in shock, then his eyes slowly focused on Kitobaki's cold, emotionless glare.

"Do. Not. Interrupt. Me." With every syllable, the dagger pressed down, light but enough to be extremely uncomfortable. If Deku gulped, he would probably be impaled. "What I did to that yak is what I'm going to do to your friends. The poison on my daggers causes your muscles to dissolve. Your lungs will stop pumping air and your heart will turn into a smoothie. Do you understand?" She lifted the dagger just enough to allow him to speak.

"Is that your Quirk?" he coughed.

"No. I just like poison. As for your third question, my Quirk is called 'Omen.' When I look at a person, I can see every possible outcome of any action or thought they may take within one year. I saw you in passing a few weeks before you invaded Deika City, and this is where your trail ran cold for me." She looked at her surroundings. "Heh. Cold." Her eyes fell back to Deku's, and narrowed. "Don't even think about it. I know. You won't beat me, and you know it, don't you, Deku?"

"Why are you working for him?" Deku asked. "Why Shigaraki?"

Kitobaki was silent for a minute, eyes locked with Deku's. The knife relaxed, and she sat back, pulling her legs up to her chest, still sitting on Deku. "This is all I know. I came from an orphanage, and was taken by a criminal agency. They sold people; slaves, one could call them." She glanced at her ankle, and Deku's eyes were drawn to a number tattooed just above her foot. "When they discovered how useful my Quirk was, they spent ten years training me to be an assassin. I can't do anything other than kill. Hell, I can't even write my own name. Rikiya Yotsubashi bought me a few years back to keep an eye on his enemies, and ever since then I've been a spy for the Meta Liberation Army. Well, until about a year ago, anyway."

"When Shigaraki destroyed Deika City?" Deku asked. Kitobaki's mouth grew thin and taut, and her eyes narrowed.

"Do not speak of that." The dagger came closer to Deku's neck again, her face dangerously close to his. "That was the only place I ever considered home. Do not remind me of what that monster did." Her eyes flitted up past his head, and she suddenly vaulted off his chest as a blue beam shot over his body, nearly roasting his eyebrows off.

Deku pushed himself into the air with his legs and landed just behind the tunnel entrance, where Team Flashburn had just emerged from. A dagger flew out of the fog, bouncing harmlessly off Cyclomachina's armor as he unleashed another blast at the assassin. "Watch out for those knives!" Deku yelled over the wind. "The poison on them will dissolve your muscles!" A flurry of brown feathers shot past him, a flash of silver visible against the falling snow. As another dagger launched itself at her, Moki-chan dove down into the snow, sending white plumes into the air as the Falcon Hero emerged from below to deliver a would-be fatal slash to Kitobaki, who just barely had enough time to leap backwards away from the deadly blades adorning Moki's talons.

Kitobaki only had a moment's reprise before she had to duck under a massive set of tusks that swung at her head, Beorn having transformed into a powerful mammoth, charging through the snow like it were nothing. As she dodged another set of slashing, blasting, and crushing attacks, her back slammed into a stone wall, to which Drakan quickly spouted more lava around, Kitobaki narrowly escaping her would-be stone prison as she leapt through a miniscule hole left unfilled. A deep rumbling filled the valley, shaking Deku's bones as Delta Vee arced down from the heavens, narrowly avoiding rocks and branches as she raced just feet over the surface towards Kitobaki. Two daggers flew her way, and she spiraled over them, swinging a supersonic punch at the would-be assassin as she came in for the blow, narrowly missing as Kitobaki forced her to peel off with another volley of poisoned daggers.

Watching the legendary Team Flashburn fighting, an awe-struck Deku came to his senses and hit a button on his chest. In a flash of green light, the Full Arsenal wrapped itself around his limbs, his hair standing on end as he poured 100% of One For All through his veins. Out of the corner of her eye, Kitobaki saw the green hero simply disappear, and before she had time to process what she was seeing an iron-clad boot slammed into her chest, catapulting her across the valley into a snowbank on the side of a cliff, ribs collapsed from the force of the hit. Gasping for breath, her eyes stared blankly off into space as she tried to come to her senses. An impact above her sent snow showering over her, and her eyes rolled up to see Deku clinging to the cliff just above her, hand outstretched. Her eyes narrowed, and before he could do anything she pushed herself out of the crater she had formed.

Moki saw this and immediately swooped down into the valley, fighting the buffeting winds threatening to pull the feathers from her body. Her talons extended and wrapped around the brown bundle tumbling through the air, but closed on nothing as the empty brown cloak flapped in the storm. Looking around, she saw a faint outline of a body fall through the snowdrifts, disappearing into the white abyss. "I lost her!" she yelled over the wind to her teammates, flapping back up to the cliffside.

"In this cold, she'll freeze in mere minutes." Beorn, once again a human, took one last glance over the ledge before transforming into a large grizzly bear, his hero costume of only pants and boots not conducive to the immense cold of the valley.

"Moki-chan! Delta Vee! Drakan!" Midoriya had vaulted back over to the ledge, shivering slightly. "Are you too cold? We need to get you somewhere warm!"

The three heroes looked around at each other. Drakan, wearing only his metal boots and fireproof pants, Delta Vee, in a thin red bodysuit with a red cape, and Moki-chan in tan shorts and a cloth chest binding. "Don't worry about us, kid." Drakan opened his mouth, revealing an orange glow. "My magma keeps me warm in any temperature."

"I'm used to flying at high altitudes and in snowy conditions," Moki said, perching on Drakan's shoulder. "These feathers aren't decorative. I don't get cold until its almost eighty below."

"I'm burning rocket fuel right now," Delta added. "I'm generating enough heat from the reaction to warm myself."

"In any case, my armor is fitted with a thermal insulation system." Cyclomachina opened a small hatch in the armor over the left side of his ribcage, revealing a glowing orange fabric. "No matter what temperature it is outside, my armor keeps my ambient temperature at normal body temperature. Beorn's the only one who has issues with the cold, but he has ways around that."

"You should be more concerned about yourself, Deku." His eyes fell to where Delta was looking: his arms, shivering rapidly. "You're not wearing much more than me, but you don't generate extra heat."

"Alright, let's get our bearings here. Moki, go scout the area." The feathered hero saluted her commander and took off, sailing into the sky as Cyclomachina held a finger to his earpiece. "Endeavor, you there? Yeah, just an assassin. She fell down the cliff and disappeared… We think we're in the Himalayas… There's only one mountain range in the world called that, Endeavor. Yes, the one in Nepal… Anyone who's not built for cold weather like this should stay down there for now. Leave someone with a heat-based Quirk behind to regulate temperature in the cave. I sent Moki out to scan the area, but anyone who can handle these temperatures should probably join us in case there's more enemies."

Moki landed back down, looking up at her commander. "Doesn't appear to be anything dangerous out there. If we had something, we could slide down the valley. It leads straight down to the steppes, where it'll be warmer."

"How far?"

"About ten miles or so. All downhill."

"Great." He raised the earpiece once again. "Cancel the previous orders. Send everyone up here. Have that girl that makes things be ready to make a sled… Yes, a sled. One that can fit all of us. We're not going to spend a lot of time waiting around out here."

Nearly a half hour later, all seventy-odd heroes were standing around a Momo focused, a large black shape quickly assuming the form of what looked like a boat with skis. After a solid six minutes straight, she finally collapsed, panting, as Cyclomachina began sending people in. Inside was cramped, but nobody was complaining. More bodies meant more warmth.

"Hey, wait a second. We're on a flat plateau with no slopes around it." Everyone looked up at Kaminari's observation. "How are we going to sled down the mountains?" The heroes turned to look at Delta, who smiled an evil grin and slammed the door shut, leaving Team Flashburn to hang onto the outside. The heroes felt a lurch forward as the deafening boom of Delta Vee's takeoff echoed through the valley, and those near a window saw a contrail arcing up towards the top of a mountain looming overhead. There was a small explosion seen, and the heroes quickly became aware of a deep rumble shaking the ground beneath them as white filled the skies.

The manmade avalanche slammed into the sled, launching it forwards off the cliff. Deku felt his stomach leap to his throat as the sled creaked and groaned in midair, slamming down after nearly ten seconds of freefall. He heard one of the women in Team Flashburn cheering and laughing outside the cabin, and could faintly see through the window the contrail of Delta's thrusters weaving back and forth as she pushed the back of the sled, steering it down the valley. The ramshackle craft careened down the mountain, jostling the heroes inside and beginning to fall apart, if the bits of black metal trailing off behind them meant anything. It kept picking up speed, to the point where even Moki-chan had to grab on in order to keep up, travelling at speeds not meant to be possible by what was essentially a school bus on skis.

"Bumpy road ahead!" Delta called out, and at the front, looking out the window, Mineta saw green rapidly approaching.

"We're out of snow! We're gonna crash!"

"Nope!" Delta laughed as the sled left the snow behind, flattening the grass under it as it continued down the mountainside. The heroes felt the ground rapidly leave them, and then a sense of weightlessness as the sled launched itself off a small ridge. Delta flew ahead and grabbed onto the front as Beorn leapt from the roof. A colossal shadow filled the valley, and a set of massive talons wrapped around the sled, massive reptilian wings billowing in the wind as the dragon glided farther down the mountain, finally finding a suitable landing spot and coming to a gentle halt.

The doors burst open and the heroes piled out, collapsing onto solid ground, some fighting the waves of nausea and some laughing. Deku rolled over and saw Team Flashburn already working on making a camp. "What are you doing? Aren't we going right back to Japan?"

"We've been locked in a confined space for nine months. We're all out of shape and in no condition to fight." Drakan looked up as he finished spouting out a small stone hut. "We're going to stay here for a while and recover."

The heroes fell silent. After coming all this way, they still couldn't go back? "How long are we going to stay here?"

Drakan locked eyes with Endeavor, an intense glare on his face. "As long as it takes."

* * *

**The heroes finally escaped the cave! Nine months is a long time to be stuck anywhere, let alone forty teenagers, thirty adults, and one seven-year-old girl. I bet that's tough. Next chapter, the war begins! Stay tuned!**


	6. Chapter 5: War

Chapter 5: War

Three months. A whole year had passed since the assault on Deika City, and the heroes were finally ready to finish the battle. Through intensive surveillance, Team Flashburn had discovered an all-out war between those who supported heroes and those who resented them. Japan had turned into a wasteland, cities leveled through near-constant fighting. Flames torched the skies, and the country sat in a perpetual hellish state, sky red from the soot and smoke filling the air. From what Delta Vee and Moki-chan described, it had turned into Hell.

Crossing the sea of Japan in a stolen fishing boat, the heroes were itching to get back on land. Fighting storms and rogue pirates, they were beginning to wear out, and they hadn't even begun the real fight yet. In the students' room below decks, many of them were lazing around, when Mei suddenly awoke with a jolt, nearly falling out of her hammock.

"Hatsume? Are you alright?" Midoriya stuck his head out of his hammock in concern, seeing Mei slightly shaken.

"I just remembered something." She hopped down to the floor and dashed up to the room Team Flashburn was using, Midoriya in tow. Mei burst into the room, no regard for the privacy of the heroes, who were changing at the moment. Delta quickly wrapped her cape around herself, and Moki's wings folded in front of her, moving in front of Drakan as Beorn rapidly transformed into a gorilla, Cyclomachina seemingly not caring about the sudden invasion of privacy. "Do any of you know where Toschi kept his stuff?" Mei blurted out, breathless.

They all looked at each other, then back at Mei. "He kept everything at his workshop, but I don't know if it's still standing," Moki said. "Last time Delta and I scouted out the cites, we didn't see many buildings not damaged or abandoned. Why?"

"Because I just remembered seeing something back when he worked with David Shield. He had built one of the same Quirk Amplifier devices as Professor Shield, but he hid it away somewhere after the attack."

The room was silent. Midoriya's jaw hung to the floor. "He built one of those too?"

"If we had that," Delta said, "we could finish this war in mere minutes. We need to get that as soon as possible."

"I'll go." Midoriya stepped forward. "I'll take Hatsume to the lab and get the Quirk Amplifier."

"Alright." Cyclomachina stood up, pulling the last pieces of armor on. "When we land, take Hatsume to the workshop as soon as possible while we take Eri somewhere safe, then meet up with us."

"Where will you be?"

"In the center of the fighting." He projected a map onto a table and pointed at a city on the coast. "Tokyo."

* * *

Two hours later, Deku and Mei were standing in front of a caved-in door, the small workshop's windows busted in. Stepping into the building, a faint haze of dust hung in the air. Deku pushed a fallen roof beam out of the way so Mei could enter, but as he dropped it, it made a hollow crunching sound. The two teens froze as the sound of cracking cement filled the dusty air, then looked down just as the floor gave way beneath them. As they fell, Deku grabbed Mei and stuck his hand out, just barely managing to grab onto a crack in the wall, grunting as the jagged concrete bit into his fingers. Bits of dust and gravel rained down on them, and Mei flipped a small device over their heads. A rod extended from on top and spread out, a metal umbrella protecting them. A few moments passed, then the debris shower tapered off. Coincidentally, at that moment the umbrella began smoking and sparking, and Mei quickly threw it back up to the surface just before a loud bang shook a few more rocks down onto them.

Jumping down into the newly-revealed cavern, Midoriya took a quick survey of his surroundings. There was an elevator just behind them, and to the other side was a room illuminated with a long row of lights. Making their way into what appeared to be a prototype storage facility, Midoriya saw lots of familiar gadgets that Toschi had patented and sold, from Quirk-repressing restraints and self-repairing tools to futuristic weapons and shields. And at the end of the long rows of inventions, isolated from the rest in a clear box, sat what looked like a small metal headband.

"That's it." Mei rushed over, staring inside the box with awe. Below it, on the pedestal, was a handprint scanner, and she noticed a retinal scanner beside it. "Should I try it?"

"I'm sure he would have put you in it, Hatsume. I bet you can get it." On hearing Midoriya's words, she placed her hand in the scanner, then immediately jerked it back as an alarm blared at her.

"What the hell!?" She looked at the small screen above the scanners, reading the message. "'Unidentified access requested. If correct identification is not supplied within sixty seconds, the Quirk Amplifier will be destroyed'!"

"What!? Why wouldn't you be allowed to take it?"

Mei tried again, but was met with another alarm. "'Time reduced to thirty seconds'!? What the hell, Toschi!? Who's the correct person!?"

"Twenty seconds remaining!" Midoriya was beginning to panic as Mei angrily pounded on the box. _Think, Izuku, think! Who would he have trusted with the Quirk Amplifier? Was it one of his old classmates? Would he have entrusted it to Chiraka? Who-_

"Midoriya!" Mei was pointing at a message etched into one corner of the box.

_This is to help you unlock your full potential, Symbol. Use it wisely._

"It's meant for me…" Midoriya's head was spinning. "He meant for me to use the Quirk Amplifier…"

"Five seconds!"

Midoriya snapped out of his stupor, quickly slamming his hand onto the scanner and looking into the camera. The alarms stopped blaring, and the box suddenly filled with a bright glow. The glass shattered, turning to a fine powder as the Quirk Amplifier floated into the air. A thin red beam flew from the device, then it shot forward, wrapping around his forehead as he stumbled back. He opened his eyes, and saw a familiar black mist surrounding him. _The last time I saw this was-_

* * *

"Welcome back, Deku." He whirled around, and was greeted by the sight of a gorgeous, black-haired woman smiling at him.

"Nana Shimura… what am I doing back here?"

"That device on your forehead," she responded, tapping the Quirk Amplifier. "It's time for you to unlock your full potential."

"You've got more power than any human in history, kid." The bald-headed hero that gave him Blackwhip stepped out from behind Nana. "Name's Lariat. Glad to see you using my Quirk more."

"It's time for you to learn to use the rest of the Quirks available to you, Deku. Starting with mine." Nana took his hand and gently pulled him up. To his surprise, he levitated above the ground, Nana following just behind him. "Float. With this, you can hover in the air. Combine it with your Air Force moves, and you can fly just as easily as Soro-Gran Torino. Don't worry about using it. Right now, that device is analyzing all the Quirks inside your body. Once it's done, you will know how to use all of your Quirks at full strength without destroying your body." She tapped on the Full Arsenal, a motherly smile on her face. "You won't need this for much longer."

**_This is where I diverge from the canon. I'm writing this before the rest of the Quirks are revealed, so the rest of the Quirks hidden inside One For All are speculative. Additionally, there are major manga spoilers ahead (chapters 253-256; go read them now if you haven't already), so be warned. In any case, good luck Deku!_**

"I guess I'm next." A black-haired man with a tall-collared suit stepped forwards from the darkness. "I'm Nightowl. I wasn't as popular as All Might was, but I was still more than enough to take on All For One. My Quirk was called 'Infrared Ray.' It was stolen from me when I was defeated by All For One, but I guess enough of it stuck around in One For All that you can use it."

"Wait, that's how he sensed his surroundings, right? Even though he was blind?"

"Spot on, Deku. With Infrared Ray, you can sense everything within a short range of you, and you can even use it like heat-vision goggles. If you're good enough, you can even sense peoples' emotions and predict their actions with near one-hundred percent accuracy."

"Don't worry, you'll be fine," Nana said. "You'll come out of this fully able to use all of your quirks at full strength."

"I'll be next," a voice growled. A light-haired man with a black and red line running down the left side of his face emerged from behind Nightowl. "I'm Blackmist. I'm the one who that All For One bastard stole his warp Quirk from."

"Blackmist? I thought that was another name for Kurogiri!"

"Kid, I'm the ORIGINAL Blackmist. Fuckin' All For One stole my goddamn Quirk and gave it to that fuckin' Nomu thing-"

"Kurogiri's a Nomu!?"

"Yeah. He used to be a student at U.A, but he was killed and All For One stole his body to make into Kurogiri. Anyway, you have that same power he does. You can teleport yourself anywhere you want, open portals anywhere, to anywhere, whenever you want, and you can turn your body into a cloud. I will warn you, though. You saw how Kurogiri could be defeated easily, once his guard was down. Use Warp Gate wisely, kid. Don't make our sacrifices worthless."

Midoriya blankly nodded, the massive influx of information threatening to overload his already overstimulated brain. Feeling a pair of hands clamp down on his shoulders, he jumped, craning his neck behind him. The two shadowy figures from before were leering down at him, no clearer than the previous times he had seen them.

"I was once called Lionheart," a raspy voice uttered from the one to his left.

"And I, Vanderwall," the other one said, voice so low it was almost a whisper.

"Apart from All For One's brother, these are the oldest users of One For All," Nana explained. "Lionheart was second, and Vanderwall was third."

"My Quirk was called 'Tesla Coil', Deku." Vanderwall held up his hand, and Midoriya was shocked to see familiar green bolts of electricity course across his form. "You have already begun to awaken it, but now you will be able to truly use its full potential."

"As for me," Lionheart said, "my Quirk was simply known to me as 'X'." He crossed his shadowy arms, and Midoriya saw crackling red lines cross his body, two forming an X shape on his face. "Like Tesla Coil, X has always been present for you, but you have never used it. With X, you will be able to significantly increase your strength far beyond what you already possess from the rest of One For All."

"Now, Deku, will you help us?" Midoriya was confused at Vanderwall's request, and Lionheart spoke up.

"Time has not been easy for us, young one. After waiting so long, there's only so much of our souls that can remain."

"What do you mean?" Nana turned behind her and beckoned another figure forward, a flaming orange person with two iconic locks of hair hanging over his face. Midoriya's jaw dropped for the umpteenth time. "All Might!?"

"There is a reason that All Might, Lionheart, and Vanderwall are distorted and foggy," Nana said. "They gave up One For All before they died."

"What? What do you mean? Of course they did, how would the next-"

"You misunderstand Nana, little one." Vanderwall's form kneeled down next to him. "We all retired. After finding and training a successor, we gave up our fight. Just as All Might lives on, his strength expired, so did we."

"The only way to be this visible, kid," Lariat interrupted, "is to die fighting."

"All of us that you can see clearly are this whole because of our regrets." Nightowl stepped closer. "We felt shame that our time with our successors came to an end so abruptly, and we wanted to help the next holder as much as we could."

"I-I don't get it… You died too early? What do you mean? Surely you must have known you were going to die, right?" Deku was on the verge of freaking out more than he already was, when Nana kneeled down before him.

"What he means, Izuku," Nana said, placing a tender hand on his head, "is that All For One came for us before our successor was ready. Lionheart and Vanderwall were already retired by the time he came for them, and All Might isn't dead yet. And as long as you can defeat the last traces of All For One, there won't be a need for our souls to remain here any longer. Please…" Midoriya felt his heart sink as Nana smiled at him with tears in her eyes. "Help us be free. There's some people that have been waiting for me for years."

"Toughen up, kid." Vanderwall placed his hand on Midoriya's head as well, green bolts beginning to arc from the teen's limbs. "You have our strength."

Lionheart touched Deku's forehead, and, as glowing red lines crossed his face and body, spoke. "And our courage."

"And our hope," Nightowl said, touching Deku's arm as the teen suddenly felt a wave of emotions crash into his heart, feeling the hearts of the former heroes encouraging themselves as much as him.

"And our will," Blackmist grunted, slapping a hand on Deku's shoulder as a fog began to emerge from his eyes.

Lariat grabbed Deku's other shoulder, Blackwhip beginning to wriggle at Deku's fingertips. "And our hope."

All Might's ethereal form said nothing, but placed a firm palm against Deku's chest, a fiery rush of power flowing through his body.

From behind Nana, an eighth person emerged. He had light-colored hair and was very skinny, but Deku saw nothing but kindness in his eyes. He knelt down next to Nana and held out his hand. "And you have us. Always."

* * *

Deku suddenly came to, gasping. Mei was kneeling over him, frantic. "Midoriya, what the fuck was that?"

"…Nothing, I'm fine, Hatsume. How long was I out?"

"Only about a minute, but…" She trailed off, crestfallen as she looked to her left. Following her gaze, Deku's eyes widened as he saw the Quirk Amplifier lying on the ground, smashed to pieces. "After it latched onto you and you fell, it got smashed. We failed…"

"No, we didn't." Mei scooted back as Deku pushed himself to his feet, pulling his hood over his head and fastening his mouthguard. "Toschi gave me that to help me use my Quirk to its fullest extent, and it did just that." Holding out his hand, his eyes began to glow green, and there was a burst of light as a warp gate opened up in front of the two. Mei's jaw dropped, and Deku stepped forward, holding out a hand. "Come on, we've got a war to win."

Stepping out into the ruins of what once was Tokyo, Deku looked around guiltily at the shocked heroes staring at him. "Young Midoriya," All Might began, stepping forward. "I have informed our friends of the secret of One For All."

"What!? I thought you said-"

"It was necessary, Midoriya. The Quirk Amplifier did exactly what it was supposed to, just as I instructed Young Hatsume."

"You asked Toschi to make you that!?" Mei was caught in a mix of joy and anger. "I get that he was incredible, but I'm just as good and all you asked me to make were some ankle weights!"

"He had already uncovered the secret of One For All long before I approached him. Regardless…" All Might dropped to one knee, Deku frantically scrabbling, trying to get him up. "Young Mi- no, DEKU, will you lead us to victory?" Looking around in shock, he saw the other heroes beginning to kneel as well.

"Stop, STOP! Please! You don't need to do that!"

"I ain't, Deku." It was the first time he had ever heard Bakugo call him that without attaching a curse to the name. "Go and tell us how to beat the shit out of the bad guys."

"Speaking of which, kid," Endeavor said, pointing over Deku's shoulder. "Hurry up." On the horizon, spanning nearly his entire view, were people. Thousands, millions of people. Every last one of them was yelling and cursing at the heroes. "Those are the guys that support Shigaraki. And speak of the devil…" The aforementioned villain, along with the rest of the League, was leading the stride, black cloak flapping in the wind. His dirty grey hair seemed to float as it whipped around his head, and even from this distance Midoriya could see the murder in those glowing red eyes.

Shigaraki held out his hand, and the masses stopped moving, the skinny villain alone stepping forward. He lifted one foot up and, with a maniacal grin, slammed it into the ground. Deep rivulets shot across the wasteland like lightning bolts, the ground quaking and shuddering as it was turned to dust. Jiro slammed her speakers into the ground, and a deep rumble filled the air. The ground under them was thrown into the air by the vibrations, the decay crossing the ground beneath the heroes. As the chunk of rock came down, the heroes leapt into the fray, charging the mob. Deku's eyes glowed green, and for the first time, truly activated One For All, in all its power and glory. Red lines crossed his face and limbs as green electricity scorched the ground beneath him as he ran.

"Deku! Throw me into the middle!" He thrust out his arm, catching Kirishima in Blackwhip as his body turned completely solid. Deku spun, launching him like a slingshot directly at the villains. Kirishima struck Gigantomachia in the head, making the massive villain falter for a moment, blood beginning to drip down his nose. He raised his fist in fury, then swung it down at Kirishima as he dove back. The massive fist stopped, caught by an equally large hand as Drakan slammed his other fist into Machia's stomach, knocking the villain back a few feet while Beorn, transformed as a gorilla, vaulted over the magma hero, changing into a colossal, 40-foot long crocodile in the air as his jaws clamped down onto Gigantomachia's shoulder. Ryukyu dropped out of the sky, claws slamming into Machia's chest as the three attempted to overpower the titan.

While the goliath fought the three powerhouses, Shigaraki had retreated behind the front lines as the rest of the mob entered the battle. As Mineta and Sero immobilized hordes of enemies, Tetsutetsu leapt into the middle of the crowd and raised his fist. Spying the metal hand, Kaminari unleashed a massive burst of electricity, the metal teen conducting the current through the throng of enemies, knocking out hundreds. Fat Gum and Muscular were engaged in a fist fight, their blows clearing a wide berth around the two. Cyclomachina was taking potshots from the air, riding Delta's back as Moki swooped low, her talons slicing through villains. Through the chaos, Deku and Mirio managed to bump into each other.

"You okay, Lemillion?" Deku ducked under a burst of flame, Blackwhip flinging the villain across the battlefield.

"Never been better! I feel like I could fight a million people!"

"Well, it's about to get worse!" Deku leapt into the air as Lemillion phased through the wave of spikes shooting through the ground. In the air, Deku's eyes caught a sickeningly familiar gold and red mask.

"DEKU! LEMILLION!" Overhaul's yell carried across the frontline. Muscular caught a punch Fat Gum threw, eyes wild. He threw the hero back and turned his head so fast Fat Gum heard a crack.

"YOU!" He charged Deku, grinning maniacally as Overhaul leapt at the teens. Lemillion phased through another set of spikes when he saw Muscular approaching rapidly.

"Deku! You take that guy! I can handle Chisaki!"

"Right!" Deku shot Blackwhip at the massive villain, tendrils wrapping around his wrist as Deku flew towards him, leg outstretched. Muscular grinned, and Deku's foot slammed into Muscular's fist, the shockwave cracking the ground beneath them. Deku's blood froze as he saw Muscular, trembling, but still standing. From a kick with the full strength of One For All and X combined, Muscular was laughing.

"Holy shit, kid! That hurt like hell! You've gotten stronger, huh? Well so have I!" Muscle fibers exploded out of his body, coiling around his limbs as they began to grow. Around him, villains ran away and heroes gulped as the now 50-foot-tall Muscular laughed, his fist hurtling towards Deku faster than anyone could see. Closing his eyes, Deku activated Infrared Ray and saw the fist as it careened towards him, concentrating his power into his right arm and bracing it with Blackwhip. The two fists, each carrying the energy of a nuclear bomb, collided, instantly pulverizing everything around them as the shockwaves threw them back, Muscular's arm destroyed. Grinning as his muscles quickly regrew, his face contorted into rage as Deku slammed his heel into his chest, tearing through muscles and striking his real body. He roared as he felt his ribcage crush, wheezing as he felt the jagged bone shards dig into his lungs with every breath.

"Overhaul! Do it now!" he yelled. The yakuza snarled and leapt over to him, ducking another strike from Lemillion as his finger grazed Muscular's arm. The rest of the Eight Precepts, fighting nearby, leapt towards their leader, touching him as their bodies exploded. Particles and bits of flesh orbited Overhaul as he roared, body growing and changing as he absorbed all nine villains. Deku and Lemillion backed up, wary, as Overhaul's ultimate form shrieked, a grotesque, writhing creature resembling a gargoyle-esque eight-armed monster with a beak and jagged teeth, nearly a hundred feet long. Around them, the battle came slamming to a halt, heroes and villains alike staggered at the sight of the demonic monster that could once have been considered human. A jagged-clawed hand swung at the two heroes, faster than anything of its size should be able to move.

The claw slammed into the ground, cracks rocketing through the pavement. The creature grinned, then roared in fury as Deku threw the hand off of him, Lemillion shooting up from below the ground to deliver a powerful uppercut. Overhaul- if the monster before them could even be called that- swatted at the hero, its claws passing harmlessly through him as Lemillion's fist connected, Deku's heel swinging up to join the punch. Overhaul was launched into the air, a deafening screech reminiscent of a million vultures forcing its way out of its throat. Hundreds of writhing black tendrils wrapped around the beast, and Deku's arms crackled as he sent a full charge of electricity through Blackwhip.

The coils of energy wrapped around Overhaul conducted and amplified the electricity, sending millions of volts through the monster's body. It screeched and thrashed as smoke poured from its body, and Deku flung his arms down, sending Overhaul crashing to the ground. There was a sickening crunch as it hit the ground, body collapsing in on itself, and Overhaul did not rise again.

"Is he…" Lemillion began, but was cut off by Deku.

"After all he's done, I hope so." The rage in the young hero's eyes was beginning to fade, being replaced with a sense of emptiness. "I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"

He was cut off by a massive earthquake that shook the battlefield to its knees, the sound of tearing rock filling the air as the ground split beneath them. Near Deku and Lemillion, Drakan's face blanched. "Oh god, he's back! I thought he was done for!"

"Who!?"

Deku's answer came in the form of a laugh, a deep, cracking sound that turned his spine to ice. Standing atop a mound of rubble, magma flowing from beneath his feet, a purple-haired man clad in black armor sneered down at the heroes, cloudy, white eyes peeled back nearly as far as his lips, betraying his unstable, demented mind. One hand glowing, he thrust it forward and the ground cracked, splitting beneath the heroes' feet as they jumped back, hundreds of careless villains screaming as they disappeared into the abyss.

"HAHAHA! I owe that Shigaraki guy so much! This feels so good!" The villain flung an arm down, and a cascade of small meteors came streaking down, filling the air with heat and dust. "Ten years! Ten years I've waited for my revenge! You took my sight, I'll take your life! Finally, I shall kill-"

"Cataclysm, I thought we already went over this, you deludded fool." A Spanish accent cut off the psychotic villain as a white-suited man smacked him on the back of the head. "I killed Kinetica, and you know it."

"DON'T RUIN MY VISION, CARBONADO! If it weren't for you being so damn good at what you do, I would have crushed you like a puny insect long ago!" The enraged Cataclysm sent a wave of magma at the heroes, scattering them. "Go out and fight like a man if you're gonna talk that kind of shit!" The Spaniard sighed, rubbing his temples as a black dust swirled around his body, glowing. As he descended the rubble pile the light faded, revealing a suit of carbon fiber armor. Spotting Deku, his eyes sparkled as a plan rushed into his head, and an evil grin came over his face.

"Cataclysm, guess who I found? It's Kinetica!" At the mention of the hero's name, Cataclysm froze, face contorting in a frenzied ecstasy.

"I'LL KILL HIM! BACK OFF!" Carbonado floated into the air, his suit carrying him away as Deku was surrounded in a wall of fire. Pulling two pistols from his armor, Cataclysm leapt into the ring, a savage sneer splitting his face in two. "Kineticaaaa… is that you? I can smell your fear… Come out and play, won't you?"

Unnerved at the villain's psychotic behavior, Deku took a wary step back, powering up One For All. In an instant, two shots rang out, and Deku narrowly ducked, two bloody trails running up his chest. Leaping into the air, he flung Blackwhip at Cataclysm, ensnaring the villain in its clutches and launching him into the air. Deku let out a sigh and turned, then screamed as a bullet buried itself in his arm, Cataclysm's face engulfed in rapture. The air swirled around him, picking up hero and villain alike as the vortex barreled down on Deku. Infuriated, Deku fired an Air Force shot at the tornado, breaking it up and sending its prisoners scattering across the battlefield. Cataclysm wiped a hand along his nose and licked it. Tasting blood, he went into a frenzy, launching disaster after disaster at Deku, the teen deflecting every attack. Finally, refusing to give up, Cataclysm raised both hands into the air, an orange glow filling the battlefield.

"I will kill you if it's the last thing I do!" In the sky, hundreds of miles above them, a speck appeared. It grew larger and larger, until the asteroid blocked out the sky, hurtling towards Earth faster than anything Deku had seen. As the meteor continued to grow, the air around them heating up, Cataclysm laughed, a chilling sound.

"Yes! Yes! Finally! I'll kill you all! Every last one of you! HAHAHA!" But as the villain was about to throw his hands down and end the world, a peculiar voice rang across the battlefield.

"Oi, ya bastard dickchugger! Quit makin' me job so damn tedious!" Standing between Deku and Cataclysm was a cloaked figure, scythe clasped in a skeleton hand.

"Who the hell do you think you are!?" Cataclysm stomped a foot down, a rush of magma engulfing the figure. Deku gasped, but as the magma subsided he found words impossible to come by. A skeleton, unfazed by the lava bath he had just taken, was staring down Cataclysm with glowing red eyes.

"Well, ain't ya just a right litt'l cunt, ya fuckin' knobjockey? I oughtta cut yer willy off and hang ye with it!"

"If you're here to stop me," Cataclysm growled, "You're too weak! You can't stop me!" With a roar, his hands came down, and the air around the battlefield seemed to freeze as the asteroid rocketed towards the Earth, moments away from crushing them all-

"Oh, I'm no' 'ere ta beat ye." The skeleton stuck a bony thumb over his shoulder, a grin crossing his face. "'E is."

The ground exploded, a bright blue streak blasting from below the surface and aiming right for the meteor. It struck the asteroid, and time seemed to stop as glowing red cracks spiderwebbed across its surface. There was a massive rush of hot air and a flash of light, and then a wall of sound hit the heroes as the asteroid shattered, exploding into billions of fragments that came raining down on the battlefield like dust. The blue light turned around, aiming right at Cataclysm and, as the villain let out a strangled, infuriated yell, struck him, an explosion rocking the ground.

Deku stared in shock as a drop of blood fell from the sky, landing on his forehead and dripping down his face, his eyes glued to the figure in the crater. It was about as tall as Beorn, but was pitch black and had a body like All Might. Blue flames crisscrossed its body, similar to his own X, but the two blue eyes brimming with determination captivated him. The throng of heroes and villains, caught in a ceasefire from the shock of the meteor nearly annihilating them all, watched as Deku took a step forward, then another, bringing himself to the being.

"I-is that you? Is it really you?" The being let out a sigh, eyes brimming with emotion as Deku placed a hand on the being's shoulder. "Chiraka?"

A smile that class 1-A had seen many months ago worked its way onto his face as their friend looked around at his surroundings. "It's good to be alive again, Deku."

* * *

**Chiraka makes his return! I knew he wasn't dead, he kept pestering me to put him back in the story. Now, it's time to explore just how he came back, and how he got his new look! Scottish Death makes a cameo, and will once again deal with a dead hero in the next chapter. Pretending like I can write Scottish English is painful and unconvincing, so I'm going to put a disclaimer that his dialogue sucks.**


	7. Chapter 6: Inferno

Chapter 6: Inferno

He felt a searing pain on his arm, then it slowly faded away as dust rose up into his vision. He saw the ground come rushing up to meet him, but it never came.

There was darkness, and he sensed that he was neither floating nor falling. He simply _was_. It was as if there were no forces acting on him; no gravity, no wind, no sensations of any kind.

He couldn't see his body, and he felt a strange sense of nonbeing, the subconscious signals his limbs constantly sent to his brain suddenly cut off. It was as if he were nothing, and the nothing was him.

For what seemed an eternity, he was trapped in that state of existence and nonexistence. It felt to him that time was both frozen and accelerating; he didn't feel any different, but there was a heavy, dull feeling of infinite boredom on the back of his mind, as though his brain were aging a million years a second.

And then, an immeasurable pain shot itself through his nonexistent body. Were he able to, he would be screaming himself hoarse. It was a relentless, rolling, excruciating sensation, as though every bone in his body was being slowly crushed by some unknown force. He didn't know what the pain was; he didn't know where the pain was; all he knew was agony.

He felt his non-existent stomach leap to his throat, and everything went red. There was what sounded like a rush of wind, and his mind filled with billions of screams that shook him to his core and tore through his eardrums and-

* * *

"AAAAHHHHHH!"

Chiraka sat up with a gasp, panting heavily as sweat dripped down his body. His hands trembled as the last lingering sensations of burning slowly faded away, clenching through the coarse red sand below him.

_Wait, sand?_

Still shaking, Chiraka slowly looked down, feeling the coarse grit slip through his fingers. It sounded as though he were on the outskirts of a large city; there were tires squealing, horns honking, and people talking and yelling. His eyes drifted up and locked onto what looked like a twisted version of Tokyo. It appeared to be similar, with the exception that the sky was blood red with deep black clouds spotting it like sunspots, and that most of the buildings were of a dark grey color.

"Ooh, that looked like it hurt."

Chiraka's head snapped to the side as he heard a little girl's giggle. Before him, what looked like a red-skinned, black-eyed nine-year-old girl hovered just above his head. Two small red horns stuck out through her long black hair, and she was wearing what can only be described as lacy black lingerie scaled for a child. A thin forked tail curled around her ankles, idly flicking back and forth.

"How bad did it feel?" she asked with a sadistic grin. "Tell me all about it."

"Who are you? Where am I? What just happened?" His questions poured out of his mouth before he even realized he was talking. The girl giggled at his lost expression.

"Welcome to Hell!" she exclaimed, gesturing around her. "Not as hot as you thought it'd be, eh? It's actually rather comfortable here." She sat down, crossing her legs under her. "Mind if I get comfy? This'll take a while."

"You died up on earth. You've been bad, so now you're here to suffer for the rest of eternity." Sensing a barrage of incoming questions, she held up a hand. "Let me finish. Hell isn't like something you see in old texts where demons like me poke you with pitchforks while you burn in pits of fire forever. Hell is a normal place; there's stores, restaurants, everything a normal city has. Except rules. You can literally do anything you want, whenever you want. Wanna do drugs? There's vending machines on every corner. Feel like killing a few people? Go right ahead, nobody cares. Get a bit horny and need to go blast some rope? Succubus brothels all around the city. They'll do _anything_," she said with a seductive grin.

Chiraka was suspicious. First this perverted little girl appears calling herself a demon, and now Hell was supposed to be some kind of corrupt paradise? "What's the catch?"

The girl grinned, sharp teeth reflecting his face back at him. "You can't die."

"…What? How is that-" His eyes widened. "Hang on, does that mean…"

"…Even when you're a hundred years old, you'll never die," she finished with a smirk. "You age normally down here, but even when your body is all broken and failed you'll never die. Even if your body is destroyed, your consciousness will continue to rot for all eternity. _That_ is what makes this place Hell."

Chiraka was silent for a moment, processing everything he had just learned. "So wait, what does Satan-"

"Don't call Daddy that!" the girl interrupted, pouting. "He hates that name! Humans use it as an insult, and it hurts his feelings!"

"Wait, 'Daddy'?" Who are you?"

"Oh, right." The girl floated into the air, and it seemed as though the air grew a bit colder. "I am Lucy, daughter of Lilith and Lucifer, and the Princess of Hell! Kneel before me! HAHAHA!"

Chiraka blinked as she attempted what he believed was supposed to be an evil laugh, though it ended up sounding more like a kitten being tickled.

"Not the most creative name," he muttered under his breath. In an instant, the little demon was in his face, growling.

"What was that?"

Chiraka sighed, laying back and crossing his arms behind his head. "I said that it seems like your parents have the creative capacity of a sea cucumber," he said as he closed one eye. "I mean, come on; 'Lucy', the daughter of 'Lucifer'? Is that the best they could do?"

He smirked as Lucy clenched her fists, cheeks puffed up in a most impressive pout. "The only name dumber than that would be if they named you after your mom and called you 'Lily'. Although, I suppose that isn't 'evil' enough for them, but, like, 'Lucy' isn't exactly an evil name either."

"Wow," Lucy said, crossing her arms and turning away from him. "You… you really are a piece of shit, huh? I can see why Daddy brought you here."

"I have problems with people who think they're in control of me." His eyes flew open. "Oh, shit! Shigaraki! He's gonna find them and kill them! I-"

"Well, well, well," Lucy teased, floating over his head. "Looks like the big bad boy actually cares after all… Gosh, if only there were _something_ that Daddy could do for you~" she said, throwing not-so-subtle winks at the teen, who eyed her with suspicion.

"I sense that you're trying to tell me something."

"_Maybe~_" Seeing that his face wasn't budging, she groaned, grabbing his wrist and pulling him as she floated towards a castle on the distant horizon. "Daddy wants to see you, that's why I'm here."

"And I thought I was special, getting a welcoming party to Hell," Chiraka said as he was dragged across the ground at a rather high rate of speed.

* * *

The doors burst open as the little demon floated into the throne room, dragging a bored and dusty Chiraka behind her.

"Daddy, I'm back!"

"Lucy, my dear!" Lucifer was a red-skinned man with shiny black hair, clad in what Chiraka assumed was a very expensive suit. Two large horns sprouted from his head, and a long cane with a silver snake curling around it rested beside his throne. His eyes matched his daughter's: pitch black with yellow irises. "Welcome home!" he said as the little demon jumped into his embrace.

"How was it?" the woman next to him asked. She (Lilith, Chiraka presumed) had the same red and black color scheme as her husband and daughter, and wore a black, skin-tight backless dress flowing down to her ankles, a split running vertically along the left side from the hem to the hip. A pair of leathery bat wings idly flapped as she hugged her daughter. "Did you convince the naughty boy to take advantage of you?"

"Yeah, that's not happening." Chiraka pushed himself off the floor, arching his back to work out a kink in it. "Not sure why you're encouraging that to a nine-year-old."

"I don't get it, Mommy! I did everything you taught me!"

"It's okay sweetie, your succubus genes will come in one day. This was just a little steppingstone for you," Lilith crooned as she stroked her daughter's hair.

"Now," Lucifer leaned forwards in his throne, clasping his hands before him. "It's time to talk, Otowaru Chiraka." An unsettling grin came over his face. "About sending you back to finish what you started."

"Send me back?" Chiraka was floored. "You mean, like, resurrecting me? How? Why? Wha-"

"There will be time for questions in a moment," Lucifer interrupted, waving his hand. "For now, let me speak."

"For years uncountable, I have ruled over Hell. Tens of billions have fallen to my domain and become my denizens. Not one has intrigued me as much as you, Otowaru Chiraka. You are what my brother would call an 'anomaly'. Most people only commit a few sins; they get a slap on the wrist, but are ultimately let into Heaven. Others spend their lives sinning nonstop, and as such get a one-way ticket straight to the bottom layer of Hell. But you, you have somehow managed to perfectly balance both ultimate good, and ultimate evil. It is for the latter that you are here with me for the rest of eternity; unless…"

"Unless what?" Chiraka asked, glancing around for an exit in case he needed to escape. "What could someone like me do to settle a deal with the Devil?"

Lucifer's grin grew deeper and eviler. "How about a challenge? You seem to be a competitive lad. I'm certain that you will accept my offer."

Chiraka eyed the demon with intrigue. "Let's say, hypothetically, I did accept this challenge. What if I lose?"

"Then you won't get to save the people you care about. I know the outcome of the approaching battle your friends will face. Not even that boy you admire so much, Izuku Midoriya, can do anything to save them from certain doom. Not alone, anyway."

"What happens then? If I win, I go help them win the war, and then what?"

Lucifer gave Lilith a look, and she nodded, picking her daughter off of her lap. "Lucy, sweetheart, how about you go do what we asked you to, remember? How does that sound?"

"Okay!" The little demon skipped out of the throne room, humming a tune known only to her.

The doors boomed shut behind her, and Lucifer sat up straighter. "Lucy's three-hundredth birthday is coming up in a few weeks," Lucifer said. "I intend on presenting you as a gift to her, whether you have saved your friends from their demise or not."

"…The fuck?"

"I intend to make you Lucy's slave."

Chiraka narrowed his eyes at the demon. "If you think I'm gonna take orders from some bratty little-"

In an instant, Chiraka was on the ground, cheek stinging from the powerful slap that had sent him flying across the room. Lucifer towered over him, small flames beginning to leak from his eyes as a dark shadow seemed to fill the throne room.

**"DO NOT SPEAK OF MY DAUGHTER IN THAT TONE IF YOU VALUE THE ABSENCE OF PAIN." **

The flames sputtered out, and the demon sat back in his throne, exhaling. "I care about that little demon more than my own life. I would do anything to keep her happy."

"Why would giving me to her make her happy?" the teen asked as he winced, picking himself off the floor. "And what do you mean your life? You can die?"

"That's for you to find out," Lucifer sneered. "If you can."

Chiraka's mind blanked for a moment. "You… you want me to fight you?"

"No, no, of course not." He stood, Lilith following him to a window to the left of the thrones. He smirked as he watched five figures approach the castle gates, Lucy leading them along, marching to the beat of a drum heard only to her. "There are others who will challenge you in my stead. If you come out victorious, you will receive my blessing and shall be allowed temporary passage to the physical dimension."

"There is one handicap that we shall impose upon you," Lilith said, turning to face the teen. "I assume Lucy has told you the true horrors of Hell?"

"I can't die or anything, so if my body's destroyed my consciousness will be trapped here for the rest of time. That right?"

"There is another condition, one that is meant to break your spirit." Her eyes narrowed and a sadistic grin stretched across her face.

"Have you tried to use your Quirks yet?"

Chiraka stared at her, confused, then a shiver went down his spine and he felt the blood rush from his face.

_I can't use my Quirks! What's happening?_

"Hell is meant to break your soul slowly," Lucifer explained. "For those like you who are blessed with the gifts of supernatural powers, I can imagine no shock to be greater than that of losing that which has come to define you as a human."

"That being said…" Lilith circled Chiraka, running a clawed finger along his neck as he shivered. "My husband has been kind enough to offer you one power to use in these upcoming trials."

Her teeth flashed, and Chiraka felt a prick on the side of his neck. He tried to jerk away, but Lilith bit down harder, razor-sharp canines piercing his skin. He felt a forked tongue work its way into the bite marks, and there was a sharp flash of pain that slowly receded as she released him. He staggered away, glaring daggers at the vampire as he rubbed his neck.

"Lilith has transferred a share of her unique healing ability," Lucifer said. "It should activate the same way your former healing Quirks did. However, this is Hell we are talking about."

"Whenever you activate your healing ability," Lilith hissed into his ear, "you will feel the pain from the last time you used it, as well as the current pain multiplied. Every time you use this ability, it grows more and more painful the next time."

"Mommy, Daddy! I got them!" Lucy burst through the door, a triumphant smirk on her face. "They're in the colosseum!"

"Good job, Lucy! You did great!"

Lucy looked rather smug from receiving so much praise from her mother, hands on her hips like she was winning some sort of award.

"Lucy," her father said, dragging Chiraka over by his neck, "could you be a dear and take this one to the staging area? You're free to give him any advice you deem necessary for the matches."

"Yep! This is gonna be fun!" The little demon grabbed Chiraka's arm and floated out of the room, dragging the teen behind her. "We haven't had one of these matches in almost two hundred years!"

"What happened in the last one?" Chiraka asked, managing to get his feet under him and running along behind Lucy.

"He lasted all of five minutes before he gave up!" she said with a grin. "Daddy let me use him afterwards. He lasted a few days before he messed up and I tore him in half."

Chiraka's face paled. "…What exactly did he do?"

Lucy abruptly stopped, nearly tripping up the teen following her. Her eyes were narrowed, and her little hands curled into fists, as if she were remembering some unspeakable offense.

"He obeyed me. He listened to everything I told him."

Chiraka blinked a few times, and leaned his face down beside hers, cupping his hand around his ear.

"I beg your pardon?"

"He was a good servant!" Lucy yelled, stomping down the corridor as Chiraka followed, not quite understanding. "There's a reason I was dropping all those hints around Daddy when I heard about you! You're a terrible person!"

"That really hurts, you know," he said mockingly, pointing at his chest. "Right here. It pains my heart to hear such accusations."

"That!" she exclaimed, whirling around and floating up to poke her finger at his chest. "That right there! If I insulted that other guy like that, he would be groveling on the floor apologizing! You turn right back around and sling insults back at me! I don't want to be served by someone who obeys me like I'm some sort of goddess!"

Chiraka raised an eyebrow at her. "You want a servant that can match you in shit talking others? You want a servant who refuses to do anything you tell him to?"

"Yes!" A dreamy look came over her face as she slowly spun around in the air. "It would be so great to have someone who treats me like I treat them~"

"So you're an M?"

Lucy stopped spinning, flicking his nose as she pouted. "No. I just don't like everyone always fawning over me like I'm a child."

"But you are a child."

She frowned at him, turning away and continuing down the hallway. "I'm turning 300 soon, you know."

"Ah, that was another thing I've been meaning to ask," Chiraka said as he caught up to his guide. "What's up with you demons aging so weird? I thought you would have aged normally like the rest of us."

"Demons physically age 30 times slower than a human does," Lucy explained. "One year of aging for a human is about twelve days or so for a demon. But we mentally mature just as fast. So even though a teenage demon looks like a six-month-old human child, they're as mature as a human their mental age. Most demons will age like a human until they reach a certain point, just every thirty years or so."

Chiraka did a quick bit of mental calculation. "So how old are your parents?"

"No clue." Seeing Chiraka's confused look, she shrugged. "I've asked them a lot. Neither of them know when they were born, or even if they were born. Daddy says his oldest memory is just kinda sitting on a rock a couple thousand years ago, messing around with the first few sinners. He says he hasn't aged at all since then. Mommy doesn't know either."

"So, if they've been alive for an undeterminable amount of time, likely since the beginning of modern human history, why did they wait until 300 years ago to have a child?"

Lucy shrugged again. "No idea why it took so long for them to get fucking." On seeing his slightly shocked expression, she huffed. "I'm mentally 300 years old. I know how you make babies. Mommy and Daddy showed me."

"…Th-that's disgusting."

"Well, I _am _part succubus," she replied, yawning. "Mommy's half vampire and half succubus, and Daddy's full demon."

"Still feels weird to have a little kid talking about that stuff."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Look, we're nearly there!" She opened a door to the courtyard, floating towards a small cloth tent sitting by one corner.

Chiraka eyed it with disdain. "This is what you call a colosseum? Seriously?"

"No, this is the staging area," Lucy said, rolling her eyes. "We don't use 'Quirks' down here, we use magic. Pure and simple."

Eyeing her like he didn't believe a word she said, Chiraka stepped into the tent to find a cot, a box of first-aid supplies, a rack of medieval weapons, and a table. There was a red glow behind him, and he turned to see Lucy floating before the tent flap, hands outstretched before what looked like a red seal; like a portal to Hell you'd see in a crappy mid 2000's horror movie.

She slumped to the ground as the seal faded away, panting. A small dark mist appeared beside her, and she stuck an arm into it, pulling out a king-sized candy bar. Tearing the wrapper off, she eyed it, wrapping her hand around it as if she were measuring it. Looking at the result in disdain, probably realizing it was too big to eat at once, she bit a corner off it, reaching back into the mist.

"Candy?" she offered, glancing it Chiraka.

"I'm good."

She shrugged and tossed the wrapper into the mist, which promptly disappeared.

"Hey, what is that anyway?"

"It's my powers," Lucy replied. "I have this tiny personal dimension I can access. I use it to hoard candy."

"Ah, so demonic," Chiraka mocked. "You're gonna be such an evil little girl if you ever grow up."

"'If?'" She pouted at him, angrily taking another bite of candy. "I'm a big girl! My Mommy and Daddy say so!"

_Case in point_, Chiraka thought to himself. "So, now what? I go out and fight some demons while I'm completely powerless?"

"You're allowed to use those weapons," Lucy replied, pointing at the rack behind them. "Not that they'll help you for the first few challenges."

"What are these challenges?" Chiraka asked as he sat down on a bench.

"Depends on the demon," Lucy said as she wolfed down the rest of the candy bar. "Some want to test your strength, some want to test your will, some want to test your mind, yadda yadda yadda. I'll tell you about each one when you go up against them."

"You're coming with me? I thought you were going to be taunting me the whole time."

"I can't get a free servant if you don't have a body to use."

"I see." Chiraka stretched, standing and walking to the weapons rack. He eyed the contents for a few moments, then lifted a shiny black spear off it. The tip had two axe blades below it, and the opposite end had a flanged grip. "Nice halberd," he said as he spun it. "Pretty well balanced."

"Alright, let's go."

Chiraka turned around, only to be met with the sight of Lucy pulling off what few items of clothing she wore.

"What the fuck!?" he yelled as he turned back around. "What are you doing!?"

"Relax, there's nothing there." She floated around in front of him, prying his eyes open. She wasn't lying; her chest and crotch were completely smooth, as if she were a doll.

"I used a bit of magic to cover myself." She twirled around, showing off her newly censored body. "Sorry, you don't get to see me naked," she teased, staring at him upside-down. "Yet~"

"You know what, I'll pass."

"Whatever. Hold still."

Her eyes glowed red, and it was as though her body was sucked down into his forehead. He blinked a few times, a painful headache spreading directly behind his eyes.

_"Hmm, nice body you got here. You're pretty strong."_

"Umm, what just happened?" It was as if the voice was coming from directly inside his head.

_"Nothing, just entering your mind for a bit… Oh, wow, this is what it feels like to have one of these? Oh, I could get used to this. Pretty big down-"_

"Alright, alright, just shut up!" Chiraka clenched the halberd in his hands and slowly stepped forwards to the tent flap, eyes narrowed. "Alright Lucy, who's the first demon?"

_"They're one of the most frustrating beings I've ever encountered, apart from you."_

"Oh, very funny."

As Chiraka stepped through the flap, he entered into an area akin to a Roman colosseum, a massive area circling around him with dozens of rows of seats stretching into the sky, completely empty.

_"We normally use this arena when two demons get into fights. People love to watch two demons try and kill each other."_

In a special box on the front row, Lucifer and Lilith sat, two demon butlers and three maids by their side. Lilith sat back in her throne, whispering things to her husband, who seemed genuinely enraptured by the upcoming battle.

Chiraka stepped to the middle of the arena, looking around him for his opponent. Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, and for a moment he considered asking Lucifer where his opponent was. These thoughts were dashed by a bloodcurdling laugh coming from all around him, seeping into his brain and chilling his spine. It was grating, a metallic combination of both male and female voices.

_"Your first opponent will test your reactions, physical, mental, and emotional. Nobody, not even Daddy, knows their true appearance, voice, or gender. Their life is based off of lies and trickery; you will not be able to get away from this demon unscathed."_

A shimmery mist formed across the arena, not quite coalescing into a specific form, but more like Kurogiri when he fully turned himself into Blackmist. There was a rush, and before Chiraka could react something slammed into his chest, sending him sprawling. The laugh returned, louder than before.

**"I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR A CHANCE TO TOY WITH YOU, BOY."** The voice seemed to come from within his own chest, the deep baritone shaking his ribs from within. The mist circled around him as he tried to fan it away, and an unseen force grabbed him by the throat, lifting him into the air. As he struggled, vision beginning to darken, the fog parted slightly, revealing a jagged, ghostly face sneering down at him.

_"The one you will be facing is known as Daeva, the Deceitful."_

* * *

**Author's note: And thus begins the Hell arc! Lucifer, Liliith, Lucy, enter stage left! Daeva, the Deceitful, stage right! Before I get any Latin nerds on my case, I'm well aware that Daeva is just Latin for "demon". I've been listening to Kai Wachi a lot recently, and some of his songs are the names of demons. Also, I know at least two of the demons' names are going to be inaccurate, but I wanted titles that alliterated with the names so suck it up. Anyway, time for Chiraka to fight a demon so prolific at lying that nobody even knows his true form. Thankfully, our semi-hero has plenty of sarcasm and natural distrust, so it should be a pretty even match. I think.**


	8. Chapter 7: Daeva, the Decietful

Chapter 7: Daeva, the Deceitful

**"Tell me, boy… what brings you here?"** The ghostly face circled Chiraka, leering down at him from all angles.

"What?" he grunted, clawing at the pressure surrounding his throat. "What brings me to Hell, or what brings me to this arena? Either way, you already know the answer."

**"Oho, I wonder… I wonder."**

_"Honestly, I kinda hate this guy,"_ Lucy's voice echoed from inside his mind. _"Everything that comes out of his mouth is a lie, or at least not the truth, and he can tell if you are lying. He'll destroy you if you try and lie to him."_

"Oh, well that's absolutely wonderful."

The pressure subsided, and Chiraka slumped to the ground, coughing as he rubbed his throat. The mist continued to swirl around him, making his eyes water.

**"Hear me, boy. I intend to break your mind. If you cannot be honest with yourself, then you cannot truly be what you desire."**

"And what is that supposed to mean, 'what I desire to be'?" Chiraka's hand clenched around his halberd, pushing himself up. "What do you think you know about me!? I know who I am! I know what I want to be!"

**"Do you, though?"** A light shone through the fog; soft, inviting. **"How can you know who you are when you don't even know the truth?"**

"I don't care what you're trying to convince me of!" Chiraka yelled as the light grew brighter. "You don't know me!"

**"Oh, I don't, do I? Well then, let's go back in time a bit, to when your parents were murdered…"**

The light enveloped Chiraka, flooding his mind with images, images that he recognized._ Wait, this is-_

* * *

***KNOCK KNOCK***

The conversation withered away as something pounded at the door. Chiraka's father froze mid-bite, eyes drifting to the door.

"Honey, take Otowaru and Hatanaka to the basement."

He stood up, his muscles beginning to swell as he stepped towards the door. His wife grabbed a twelve-year-old Chiraka and his nine-year-old sister and rushed them down the stairs, pushing them behind a stack of boxes.

"No matter what you hear, do not get out from there," his mother said, a tear in her eye. She slid a large box over the opening, trapping the children behind it, and Chiraka heard footsteps go up the stairs, and the door slammed shut.

"What's happening, Big Bro?" his sister asked, shivering as she held his arm.

"I don't know, but it must be something scary if dad was that scared…"

There was shuffling from above, and though it was muffled by the door and the boxes, Chiraka could hear a heated argument from above. He shivered, and as he sat back against the wall he felt something press against his back. Feeling around in the dark, his hands gripped something hard.

"Naka, can you make a light?" he asked. His little sister nodded, and her fingertips lit up, filling the cramped space with a soft glow. In Chiraka's hands sat an old phone.

"Oto, do you think it still works?" Hatanaka asked. Chiraka shrugged, and pressed the power button, holding his breath. He sighed as the screen lit up, and he tapped on the phone icon. Chiraka dialed a number and raised the phone to his ear.

_"Kyoto Police Department, what's your emergency?"_

"Um, we were eating dinner and then someone knocked on the door and my parents got scared and hid me and my sister in the basement and there's yelling and bumping coming from upstairs and-"

_"Woah, woah, slow down kid. You say that someone knocked on your door and it scared your parents, so they hid you and your sister and now it sounds like arguing coming from upstairs?"_

"Yeah, that's what happened." There was a loud thump from upstairs, and Chiraka almost dropped the phone. "Please hurry!"

_"We'll send a squad over as soon as we can, kid. Don't leave wherever you're hiding until we arrive."_

Chiraka hung up and sighed, leaning back against the wall. "It's okay Naka, they're coming."

Everything fell silent from upstairs, and he heard panicked footsteps rushing out of the house. A car engine started up and faded away down the street. Motioning for his sister to stay hidden, Chiraka crawled out from the boxes. The door to the basement was ajar, and his heart stopped as he saw the blood dripping down the stairs.

* * *

"Yeah," Chiraka said, glaring into the mist with a tear in his eye, "That's exactly what happened. Those are my exact memories."

_"…Hey, big guy?"_ Lucy said from inside his head. _"Remember what I told you about Daeva?"_

**"Yes, what _did _the little princess tell you about me, hmmm?"** Daeva taunted.

"All she told me was that you're annoying because…"

Chiraka fell silent as his eyes slowly opened wide. "…you never tell the truth." He stood up, pointing the halberd all around him as the face danced around, sneering down at him from all angles. "What the hell does that mean!?"

**"All I mean, boy…"** Daeva's face suddenly flashed in front of Chiraka, startling the teen. **"…Is that people's memories are very unreliable. They only show one side of an argument."**

_"He means that your parents weren't randomly targeted by the Mutants."_

"Yeah, I got that!" Chiraka twirled the halberd, eyes narrowed as he searched for something to hit. "Still working on whatever the fuck that means!"

**"Perhaps, His Majesty willing, King Lucifer over there would be able to show you."**

The demon in question winked at Chiraka, nonchalantly inspecting his fingernails. "True, Daeva can only show you everything but the truth. It would take a demon of the utmost honesty to show you the truth. Of course, I won't make it that easy for you."

He leaned back in his throne, gesturing for Chiraka to continue. "If you can beat Daeva, perhaps your next challenger may offer you some insight."

_Useless bastard_, Chiraka thought. A blow to the gut brought him back to the fight, a lancing pain shooting through his body as something warm splashed over his legs. He frantically clamped his hand around the wound to stem the blood, searing pain arcing through his shredded insides.

_"If you don't heal up soon, you'll be too weak to begin the process,"_ Lucy said. Chiraka wasn't sure, but it almost sounded as though she were concerned.

_"That's absolutely not true,"_ she huffed, apparently sensing his thought. _"I won't get a good slave for my birthday if he's all torn up and unable to heal himself. Daddy won't heal you because he doesn't care enough, and Mommy would rather suck your blood, and it's easier for her to do that if you're a pile of ground beef."_

"Glad to know everyone cares about my well-being," Chiraka coughed. He closed his eyes and focused his energy around his injury. The pain flared white-hot, radiating through his insides, and he watched in intrigued disgust as the blood spilled across the ground swirled into the air, getting sucked back into his body.

It was a strange sensation, feeling his blood rush back into his blood vessels. It was as if it was refilling something he didn't know was empty, a bizarre yet familiar unconscious feeling of pressure flowing through his body. The gash on his stomach gradually shrank, as if it were being zipped up like a jacket, and the pain abruptly vanished as soon as the cut disappeared.

**"Interesting… I was under the impression that he would be powerless." **The remark was directed at Lucifer and Lilith, a hint of dejection in the demon's voice. **"I really wanted to see him squeal like a stuck pig."**

"The boy does have an abnormal tolerance for pain," Lilith commented. "With all the injuries he suffered in life, however, it's not all surprising."

Chiraka pushed himself to his feet, leaning on the halberd for support. Sweat dripped down his face as he glared at the face in the fog. "Cheap shots like that don't count in my book."

**"I was under the impression you only fought with cheap shots, boy."**

Chiraka growled as the mist swirled like a drill and shot straight for his heart. Ducking under the attack, he spun on his right heel, halberd aimed down his left leg as it slashed through the air. It didn't do much against the mist, but the added force from the spin certainly helped when the tip of the weapon crashed through a part of the arena wall. A cloud of dust flew into the air, and as Chiraka spun his sweat was flung into the dust. It soaked up the moisture and instantly condensed onto the nearest solid object: _Daeva's true body_.

Chiraka grinned as he swirled the halberd around and buried the blade into Daeva's chest. To his surprise, it simply sunk in as if the demon were made of putty. He yanked it out and swung at the body again, with similar results. As Daeva tried to leap back, Chiraka pulled the halberd out and shoved the blunt end to the side. In a display of physics that would have made Toschi Hatsume proud, the handle of the halberd swirled around, the mass of the bladed end acting as a fulcrum in mid-air. The handle slammed into the back of Daeva's head, knocking the demon to the ground, and Chiraka slammed the halberd down into the back of the demon's neck. Daeva instantly stopped struggling and went stiff, body rigid as a board.

**"H-how did you figure that one out?"** Daeva chuckled, a strained sneer fighting to stay on the demon's face. **"The little brat say something to you?"**

"Hey!" the aforementioned brat yelled, popping out of Chiraka's head. "I didn't tell him anything! And besides, it's not like I know anything about you!"

**"Oh, cry me a river you loli bitch."**

Turning away from the little demon who was now aggressively stomping on the prone Daeva, Chiraka set his eyes on Lucifer.

"Alright, I beat this dumbass. Bring out the next one so I can get this over with."

"In due time," Lucifer said, raising his hand, "in due time. You are not currently in any condition to fight. Rest a few minutes."

"…You're only saying that because you want to see me get to the last fight and get brutally destroyed, am I correct?"

Lucifer sneered, winking at Chiraka. "You catch on quickly, boy. Lucy, dear?" The little demon looked up, giving Daeva one last kick. "Take Chiraka here back to the staging area and help him relax a little bit before the next fight."

"Okay Daddy!" Chiraka found himself being pushed towards the tent, barely remembering to grab the halberd from Daeva's prone body. The instant the blade left the demon, a cloud of mist rushed around Daeva's body, obscuring it from sight once again as the demon flew out of the arena, indistinct grumbling following closely behind.

* * *

"Come on, just let it happen!"

"Fuck off! Jeez, make like a fucking mentally deficient mosquito and buzz off you little brat!"

"Saying things like that only makes me want to do it more! Stop struggling!"

"Do you guys have any concept of the word 'no' in Hell, or are you so just damn spoiled that you personally don't know what it means?"

Without context, one standing outside the tent could come to a wild variety of conclusions as to what exactly was happening inside. In fact, there _was_ an eavesdropper outside the tent.

"Pardon me, Princess…" one of Lilith's maids began as she entered the tent, bracing herself for what she was expecting to see. Evidently, Lucy attempting to force a chocolate bar down Chiraka's throat was not what she was expecting, if her relieved sigh was anything to go by. "The Mistress has asked me to inform you that the next fight will be commencing shortly."

"Yeah, whatever! Just… gah!" Lucy grunted as Chiraka finally managed to get a grip on her and throw her away, the little demon smashing through a medical table and knocking over the weapons rack. The maid winced as Lucy popped right up, unharmed with the exception of her pride. "Fine! No chocolate for you then!"

"That's perfect!" Chiraka yelled, grabbing the halberd and turning to the tent flap. "I don't want blood flavored chocolate anyway!"

"IT'S DELICIOUS!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. Who's the next demon I gotta beat?"

"Well," Lucy began as she hopped into his head, _"now that your reactions, both physical and emotional, have been determined to be satisfactory, it's time to test your physical strength."_

Something large crashed into the ground, sending a massive rush of air at Chiraka. From within the cloud of dust, a humanoid figure straightened up.

_"He is a strong judge of right from wrong, and is Hell's judge, jury, and executioner. He is even stronger than you were when you were at full power."_

A dark-skinned man eight feet tall and built like a barbarian stepped into the light, clad in various furs and chains. A battleaxe was clenched in his right hand, his left hand sweeping his long, black hair out of his eyes. They locked onto Chiraka, and a genuine grin crossed his face as he spun his axe in hand.

_"This is Vapula, the Vindicator."_

* * *

**Author's note: Bit of a shorter chapter, but then again Daeva _is_ the weakest of the five demon lords. I promise you Vapula will have a longer chapter, with more action. He's not as hasty as Daeva is, and he doesn't rely on cheap shots.**


	9. Chapter 8: Vapula, the Vindicator

Chapter 8: Vapula, the Vindicator

"In all my 1,400 years of existence, I have never come across a case such as yours."

The fact that Vapula sounded genuinely impressed contrasted greatly with his appearance. At the least, he didn't seem like he was interested in-

"Gah!"

Chiraka just narrowly managed to duck under the axe blade that just milliseconds earlier had been aimed at his neck. Breaths heavy, he looked up at the titan who now leered at him in contempt.

"Do not dare drop your guard before me, boy. I guarantee _he_ will not give you mercy as I have."

_"He's right, _that_ one won't hold back at all."_

"And just who might _he_ be?" Chiraka said, a little louder than he should have.

The flat side of the axe slammed into his chest, and Chiraka woke up sprawled out on the opposite side of the arena. He wheezed as he rolled onto his back, feeling his ribs crackle and shift with each breath he took. It felt like there was something bubbling in his lung, and his chest was noticeably caved in. Liquid fire gushed though his abdomen, sending pulses of agony .

"YOU WILL NOT RAISE YOUR VOICE AGAINST ME!" Vapula roared, stomping over to the shell-shocked teen.

"Yeah," Chiraka coughed, a rivulet of blood trickling down his cheek as he struggled to lift his head to glare at the giant, "because I physically can't."

_"Hold on big guy, let me go check the damage report."_ Chiraka felt Lucy's presence flow through him, swirling through his body. _"So, he turned your ribcage into popcorn, one of your lungs is blown open on the bottom, and your stomach burst open and has turned your guts into chili."_ He felt something swirling around farther down. _"This thing seems to be intact. Want me to check it further?"_

"Hey, hey!" Chiraka swatted at his crotch, chasing Lucy's presence back north. "That's for big girls only. Stay out."

_"I am a big girl!"_

"No you're not," Chiraka and Vapula said in unison. They glanced at each other for a moment, then Vapula sighed, giving him a look of sympathy.

"Have you really been dealing with that for three hours straight?" he asked, resting his axe on his shoulder. "I can barely stand her for one, let alone having her be inside me the whole time."

"Judging by what this crazy family has planned," Chiraka wheezed, "it's gonna be like this for eternity."

"Well, everyone's Hell is unique."

_"I can hear you two! Don't just treat me like a punishment!"_

Chiraka ignored her, focusing on his healing power. _I didn't want to use this so soon, but I can't even move right now._ Taking one last breath, he gave himself a quick mental countdown. _Damn, this is gonna suck-_

To say that he was in unspeakable agony was an understatement. Were it not for his lungs already being rendered mostly decorative additions to his body, they would most likely have blown out from how loud his screams would have been. A blood vessel in his eyes burst due to the stress and immediately healed back up, but not before leaving him with a nausea-inducing blast of agony straight into his brain. If his stomach was functional, it would have emptied itself long ago as his body writhed and trembled under the indescribable torture stabbing its way through his nerves.

His ribs abruptly snapped back into place, forcing a violent breath out of him as the pain finally ebbed away, leaving him soaked in a cold sweat. He panted for air, rolling onto his side and wrapping his arms around his chest, eyes clenched shut as he struggled to cease the shaking in his muscles, tears dripping down his face.

_"Of all the things I expected you to do here,"_ Lucy said, _"I didn't expect you to cry from the pain. Scream, beg for mercy, sure. But cry? You don't seem like a crier."_

"You don't either, but I want to turn you into one," he spat, getting to his feet.

_"Promise you'll make me cry? I'm sure you'd love it~"_

"I can't see you, but wipe that damn smile off your face." Chiraka finally stood up, stretching like he was about to work out.

"So what's your deal?" he asked the demon towering over him. "First you seem interested in me, then you smack me across an arena the size of a soccer stadium and nearly crush me to death, then you have enough mercy to let me heal up afterwards? Are you just bipolar or something?"

"The reason I am so interested in you," the demon began, "and why I have been kind enough to show you mercy, is that you are the first human being who has caught the eyes of King Lucifer." Speaking of the devil, Lucifer waved to Chiraka at the mention of his name. "He genuinely wants to see you win, despite what he may claim. Though my purpose is to test your strength, I will obey my Master's wishes with my life."

The axe flashed through the air just beside Chiraka's left shoulder, slamming into the ground. Chiraka slowly turned his head to stare at the weapon in shock, and Vapula's eyes narrowed. "That does not mean I will go easy on you. Do you understand?"

"I get the general idea," Chiraka said, eyes still glued to the axe as he took a step back. "You're gonna make it really hard for me to get through this, because you're testing whether I can pass that final guy?"

"You're very quick on the uptake. My brother will enjoy you. No," he said, sensing the teen's question, "my brother is not the last demon you will face. That one is exponentially more dangerous than the rest of us combined, with the exception of King Lucifer. He would even give Queen Lilith a run for her money. Not only is he on a level of power greater than any other demon in Hell, his speed is equal to King Lucifer's and the only demons more skilled in their abilities are the King and Queen."

Chiraka eyed the demon with wary confusion. "You're being awfully kind in telling me so much about this demon."

"I am a man of honor and truth," Vapula proclaimed, hands held to the side as though he were receiving divine inspiration. "I hold the position of Judge here, applying punishments suitable for each person who arrives here. I am also the only being who can judge and even erase sins completely from one's soul; not even our King can do such a thing. Normally, you would have appeared before me in Hell's court to receive your sentencing, but you are under special circumstances."

"So what about all the people coming down here while you're fighting me?" Chiraka asked. He was hoping to distract Vapula long enough to come up with a plan. "Aren't they just stuck in limbo until you're finished?"

Sensing that an explanation would take a while, Vapula snapped his fingers. Instantly, several servants appeared carrying a decent-sized table, a throne, and a smaller chair suitable for Chiraka. They arranged them quickly, bowing to Vapula before disappearing.

"This will take a while. Sit." Vapula's eyes narrowed at Chiraka's hesitation. "I'm not going to fight you for now. A soul in search of answers is higher priority for me."

Warily taking his seat, Chiraka met the demon's gaze. "So, souls stuck in limbo. Please continue."

Vapula leaned forward, resting his elbows on the table. "I assume you have discovered time works differently here in Hell. No doubt the Princess told you how we demons age differently, although it likely was a very simple and shallow understanding. My brother has a deeper understanding of everything, but my knowledge in the subject is more than satisfactory. Humans who are waiting in limbo will simply be in stasis, unconscious until I get to them. Now, we demons age the same way humans age in real life; one rotation about the sun is one year of growth. Down here in Hell, time is distorted in an extraordinary manner: time moves much slower down here as a result of an interesting phenomenon known as quantum dilation."

"You see, because Heaven and Hell are in different universes, they have different physical laws and properties. For example, the sky only emits light on a red spectrum, and constantly at that. Yet all colors here are the same as they would be on earth."

"Hey, you're right!" Chiraka said. "I never thought about it. How can objects reflect colors across the entire spectrum if the only light reaching them is red?"

"Quantum dilation answers many things, Chiraka." Vapula snapped his fingers, and a pen and a sheet of paper appeared before him. He began drawing a diagram for Chiraka. "Observe. Even though only red light exists here in Hell, light of every color exists everywhere else. This is because color is based on reflection in Hell. First, anything that exists in Hell has to exist in reality; the same applies in Heaven. No matter what color temperature of light hits an object, it only reflects a color of light whose frequency is enough to perfectly resonate with the natural rate of the atoms within the object. When the light in Heaven or Hell strikes an object, the object is simultaneously being illuminated both in reality and in these alternate dimensions. The color and intensity of the reflected light is altered through cross-dimensional travel and is preserved when it reaches our eyes in Hell."

"That doesn't seem like it makes any sense," Chiraka groaned as he felt a headache begin to spread.

"It is very difficult to fully understand in a human lifetime. In fact, my brother and I are some of the only demons in Hell who have lived long enough to grow an understanding of our reality. There is another one who is older than us, as well as the King and Queen. We are the only beings who are old enough to understand. In any case, the physics here are clearly different from those you are used to in real life, no? That also applies to time. In your world, there were three physical dimensions and one 'quantum dimension', which is more accurately referred to as entropy. Imagine a box with a particle in it. The particle can move in a straight line in any direction. After some amount of time, it will have reached every possible location within the box, and has come back to its original place. Now, if the next movements the particle takes cause it to retrace its exact movements all the way back to the beginning, it can be said that even though time physically passed while the particle was moving, the object's time first moved forwards and then backwards, resulting in no net time passing for the particle."

"My head already hurts, man. I don't understand normal physics, let alone Hell physics." Vapula eyed the teen with amusement.

"That was 'normal' physics. In real life, space is infinite. No matter how long it takes, a particle cannot reach every single position in the universe and retrace its steps. Time always moves forwards because space is infinite and constantly growing. Hell has no restrictions. Hell is not a sphere like Earth; it is perfectly flat and goes on forever; however, if you travel in one direction long enough you will inevitably end up wherever you began. That includes up; if you fly straight up, eventually you will find yourself seemingly falling down to the ground again, even if you never changed your inertial vectors. At some point, there exists what the Sorcerer calls the 'Mirror Zone'; a place where your particles instantly reverse trajectories and retrace their steps. The transition is unnoticeable, and nobody is exactly certain of its exact boundaries. All we know is that Hell is a finite volume. Therefore, spacetime will eventually reset itself to zero. The Sorcerer has calculated this happens every thirty years on average. However, an object's physical time does not reset, meaning it does not reset a person's physical state. They will age as they would normally. Naturally, time does not reverse itself; rather, it is as if time is in blocks; once you reach the end of one, it is removed and you begin at the start of the next one, while still moving forwards."

Chiraka had long since given up trying to understand the physics behind Hell; truthfully, he had never really been listening anyway. He was just trying to get the demon distracted enough to put his plan into motion. "So why don't demons age the same?"

"That is simple: demons are natural to Hell. We are not bound by your physical laws. We have evolved to live the same length of time as one would in the physical world. It would be such a waste if us demons died off while sinners were still being sent here to us. Naturally, we demons will outlive out bodies eventually. But there are replacements available."

"Replacement demons?" Chiraka asked. _Just a bit longer, come on…_

"Replacement bodies. The Sorcerer has been building new bodies for our minds once we outlive these ones. Now-"

"Who's the Sorcerer?" Chiraka blurted, desperate to keep the conversation going.

Vapula looked at Chiraka, eyes flickering slightly before narrowing. "You're stalling, boy. Spill it. What are you trying to accomplish?"

"This!"

With a shout, Chiraka launched the halberd at Vapula's neck as he dove for the demon's axe. Vapula simply let the spear bury itself in his throat, calmly pulling it out as the wound sealed itself back up.

"That was foolish, boy. Perhaps you're not as smart as I thought."

Chiraka sneered as Vapula's arms twitched, recognizing the signs of the demon's approaching attack. Vapula pushed himself off the chair with his arms to give himself extra speed, and promptly collapsed onto the table. Looking around himself in confusion, his eyes finally settled on two bloody stumps that were once his feet.

"I noticed you have an incredibly high pain tolerance," Chiraka explained as he slammed the axe through the demon's back, pinning him to the ground. "I slowly used my halberd to cut your feet off to unbalance you. I also noticed your healing is voluntary, like mine. You have to focus on healing yourself. So…" Chiraka twisted the axe in the demons back, satisfied as he let out a strangled grunt, murder in his eyes as he looked up at the teen. "I figured if you can't focus, you can't heal." Spinning the halberd in his hand, Chiraka brought it down straight into Vapula's head.

The heavy blade cut through the bone with ease, punching through the demon's left eye before burying the tip in the ground below him. Vapula continued to struggle and growl, but with a blade slicing his brain in half, his body couldn't focus on healing. Chiraka kneeled down in front of him, eyes cold.

"Yield, and the pain will stop."

Vapula's right eye twitched in fury, then the demon sighed, a grin of respect growing across what was left of his face. "I have to say, I never expected you would make it this easy. It was clever to use my own willingness to help seek the truth against me. You knew you couldn't win a head-on fight, so you used your brain to avoid one. I yield."

Chiraka smirked and yanked the halberd and axe out of the demon, the wounds beginning to heal almost immediately. Vapula rolled over onto his back, sitting up. "Can you pass me my legs? I need to put them next to the stumps, so that they'll reattach."

"Sure, why not?" Chiraka tossed the limbs to the demon, crossing his arms. "Now, I heard you know the truth about what happened to my parents."

"I know bits and pieces. However, I feel it is necessary for you to win that knowledge from my brother. He will know much more than I about what happened that night, and I am overdue for court. I bid you luck in your trials, Chiraka." With a polite bow, the demon leapt into the air, quickly vanishing into the sky.

Chiraka watched him go, suddenly overcome with a massive bout of exhaustion. Lucy floated out of his head, noticing Chiraka's head begin to dip. His knees buckled, and the ground came rushing up to meet him.

* * *

His eyes finally peeled themselves open, the darkness of the room comforting. Wherever he was, it was somewhere extremely comfortable. Sitting up straight and blinking, he yawned as the blanket slid down off his chest to his lap.

_Wait, what?_

Looking around in confusion, he found himself in a large black-sheeted bed that could have easily fit ten people with room left over. The walls were similarly painted black, and a window to his left had its drapes thrown open, letting in the soft red light of the sky. Across the room from the foot of the bed was a bathroom, door wide open, and a small dresser sat by the wall to the left of it. There were a few bookshelves scattered around the room, and what looked like several dolls as well. A squeaky yawn to his right made him jump as Lucy stretched her arms, sitting up. Her eyes were still closed, and her head was threatening to pull her back down to bed. If she weren't a perverted demon who was bent on making him her slave, Chiraka would almost have thought she looked absolutely adorable.

"Umm…"

Chiraka's voice woke her up a little bit. She turned her head to look at him with the same tired, bored expression.

"Mornin'." She stifled a yawn, rubbing her eyes as she lazily floating towards the dresser, still magically censoring her body. "You were out pretty hard last night. Slept nearly sixteen hours straight. Do you always do that?"

"Uh, no, not usually." Chiraka rubbed his forehead, still feeling the temptation of sleep threatening to drag him back under the covers. "What happened?"

"You fell asleep right after Vapula left," Lucy said as she shuffled through the dresser, looking for a set of clothes to wear. "You'd been awake for almost 29 hours straight at that point and were mostly running on adrenalin. Daddy brought you back here since we don't have any guest beds in the castle."

"You have an entire castle and don't have a single spare bed?"

"I mean, there are the servant quarters, but they're usually kinda noisy since the servants only sleep for about six hours or so. Besides, I asked him to let you sleep here since my bed's the most comfortable and you looked like you could a bit of beauty sleep." She glanced at him with an evil smirk. "Not that it helped, mind you."

Chiraka simply rolled his eyes, pulling the covers off his body. He paused for a few moments as his brain caught up with his eyes. "What am I wearing?"

Currently, he was clad in a set of black velvet pajamas with gold trimming around the seams, slightly big on him but comfy nonetheless. There was a set of matching slippers by the side of the bed, and a red velvet robe was hanging on a stand just behind them.

"Oh, since you don't have any clothes besides those dusty old rags, Daddy let you borrow some of his pajamas. He had the maids take your measurements last night so they could have some clothes custom tailored for you. He's rather generous like that." Finally picking an off-white sundress with pink fuzz lining the seams, Lucy floated towards the bathroom. "I'm gonna take a bath. Don't come in unless you want to help me~" she teased. "The maids will be by shortly to deliver your clothes." The door closed behind her, and Chiraka heard the sound of running water. He sighed, standing up and taking the pajama shirt off. He noticed himself in a mirror across the room, and walked over for a closer look.

His messy brown hair had grown longer in the months he had spent on the run, draping down to his shoulders and full of knots. His human form had blossomed from a pale, skinny weakling into a decently muscular young man, with a bit more color to his skin than before. However, what stood out to him the most was the lack of scarring. Before, he had severe scarring across his face from his first attack on Kanto Hayami's compound over a year ago; however, it seemed that the healing powers he had been granted removed them as well. This left Chiraka conflicted. On one hand, he felt like he looked much better without the scarring. On the other, they were a reminder of his mission in life, of his reasoning for becoming The Slaughterhouse.

There was a knock on the door, and a maid entered the room, bowing to Chiraka as she set a bundle of clothes on a second dresser that Chiraka could have sworn was not there before. "King Lucifer and Queen Lilith shall be awaiting you and Princess Lucy in the dining hall after you are both ready. They have provided you with clothing custom-tailored to your size, in a variety of styles." Bowing once again, she slipped out of the room, closing the door behind her.

The door to the bathroom slid open and Lucy walked out, running a brush through her hair. "Go ahead and clean up too. You're probably all dirty from the fighting yesterday and wherever you were on Earth. Oh, and if you take longer than five minutes I'm gonna go in there and clean you myself."

Chiraka narrowed his eyes as he grabbed a dark purple shirt and black jeans from the pile of clothes the maid had left him. "That won't be necessary."

* * *

"I said I was sorry! Come on!"

Chiraka stalked down the hallway to the dining hall, followed by a surprisingly apologetic Lucy. "I didn't know it was gonna be up when I came in!"

"First of all, that just happens in the mornings. It's natural." Chiraka gave her a hard glare that made the little demon wince. "Second, that was not five minutes, that was three. I counted."

"I was hungry!"

"Apparently you were thirsty as well."

"What was that!? I am not thirsty for anybody! I make people thirsty for me!"

"Yeah, well, I wasn't the one who burst in on her new roommate showering because she can't use a clock, was I?"

The two continued bickering all the way to the dining hall, some of the castle servants paling at the language Chiraka dared to use towards the princess. She didn't seem to mind; rather, it seemed as though she were egging him on. Their back-and-forth continued until they reached the dining hall, where Chiraka froze upon smelling the incredible aromas coming from the kitchen. It was at this moment that his body remembered that he hadn't eaten in two days, and decided to punish its stupid, useless brain with a sharp, stabbing pain in his gut.

Nearly doubling over, Chiraka managed to stumble his way into the dining hall, finding a seat already prepared for him near the head of the table. Lilith and Lucifer sat side by side at the end, talking about some sort of "business" that needed to be attended to by the servants. The rest of the dining hall, even bigger than the one at U.A, was filled with servants gossiping and discussing the day's work.

Chiraka took his seat with a wince, feeling his stomach screaming for food. Lucy took the seat across from him and, not even the moment she had done so, a line of chefs appeared from the kitchen bearing trays covered with silver lids.

"Very punctual," he commented, bringing a proud grin to Lucifer's face.

"We eat as a family. The entire castle. Nobody eats before everybody is here and ready."

Two of the chefs approached the head of the table, bowing politely before setting the trays down before their king and queen. As they removed the lids and took their leave, Chiraka's jaw dropped open. There were scrambled and fried eggs, bacon, sausages, pancakes, waffles, fruit, everything one could possibly have for breakfast. Another server came around with a two pitchers full of dark liquid, setting them beside the rest of the meal. Lucifer and Lilith were already filling their own plates, Lucy beginning to devour the enormous stack of pancakes on her own plate.

It took a few seconds for Chiraka to snap out of it, dumping vast heaps of the delicious food onto his own plate and wolfing it down, bringing a smirk to Lucifer's face.

"Hungry?" he joked. Chiraka ignored him, demolishing an entire plate of eggs in one bite and reaching for one of the pitchers. Lilith's hand shot out, snatching his wrist. He looked up in surprise, afraid he had done something wrong.

"Are you sure you want that, Chiraka? That's blood."

Chiraka looked at the pitcher and blinked a few times, retracting his hand with an expression of disgusted intrigue. "Ah. Lovely."

"It's good!" Lucy said indignantly, chugging a glass of the thick red liquid. "You just don't get it!"

"If I wanted to drink something out of an animal, I'd have a glass of milk." He rolled his eyes as he turned to Lilith, who had a seductive grin spread across her face. "Absolutely not."

"Oh, what a shame~" she teased. "You sure you don't want some _freshly squeezed_ milk for breakfast? Or would you rather me squeeze out _yours?~_"

Chiraka set his fork down with a clatter. "And I've lost my appetite. I'm going to wait at the amphitheater until you bring the next guy for me to beat."

"Oh, we already have," Lucifer said. The demon gestured to the seat beside Chiraka, who looked at the occupant in surprise. He was almost identical to Vapula: olive skin, black hair and beard, and quite tall. However, this one was dressed in a black robe that flowed down to his ankles, several chains wrapped around his waist.

"Greetings, Otowaru Chiraka," the demon said in a monotone voice. "My name is Paimon, the Persecutor. I will be conducting your third trial as of this moment."

* * *

**Author's note: Enter Paimon, stage left! There was a lot of heavy exposition in this chapter, and for the most part the physics Vapula explains are accurate. It hurt to write. **

**I really like the dynamic between Lucy and Chiraka. She has grown quite attached to him and thinks of him as her only real friend (regardless of what she says), and Chiraka couldn't care less, since he thinks she only cares because he's going to be her slave. Related note, if I were going to write a completely original story about Lucy, would you guys read it? I'd probably put it on because at this point, the story has almost no connection to MHA besides Chiraka. I'd replace Chiraka with someone else, but their interactions would stay the same.**

**In the meantime, go check out my other story ****Catharsis****. It's my first standalone, mostly canon MHA story, and I've recieved very favorable comments on it. It's sad and sweet, and I even included an easter egg character from ****Kinetica Rising****. With that said, till the next chapter!**


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